Man United could sensationally sack Ole Gunnar Solskjaer this week as the fall-out from the 5-0 thrashing by Liverpool on Sunday continues, according to reports.
Solskjaer’s side were embarrassed by their north-west rivals at Old Trafford and suffered their third Premier League defeat of the season.
Mohamed Salah struck a superb hat-trick and there were goals each for Naby Keita and Diogo Jota on a humiliating day for Solskjaer and his players.
Paul Pogba was sent off for a horrible tackle on Keita only 15 minutes after being introduced by his boss at half-time. The Frenchman has handed Solskjaer further issues as he will be suspended for United’s next three games.
There is now a chance that the Norwegian will not be in charge for much longer.
It was pretty quiet on the managerial front yesterday morning, though as the day wore on, more and more stories started to break.
Perhaps the biggest came from Italian media outlet, Calciomercato, with the translation coming from Sport Witness. Apparently, Antonio Conte is that man.
The manager has emerged as the ‘priority’ candidate to replace Solskjaer whose position as United manager is deemed ‘no longer safe’. At the end of the day, results haven’t been good enough, while on paper, this squad should be doing far better.
What’s interesting here is that ‘talks are underway’ between United and the 52-year-old manager, who is currently out of work after leaving Inter Milan over the summer.
Apparently, Conte is ‘evaluating the actual interest of United’, as he looks to join a project that’s trending upwards rather than heading in the opposite direction.
It’s also written that Conte will not take a lower salary, suggesting United are going to have to dig deep to tempt the Premier League title-winner to make the move to Manchester.
My thoughts on Conte haven’t wavered. He has the potential to be a winner, though it’s also not going to be the most exciting style of football we’ve ever seen.
Personally, I’d avoid him if I were in charge as it’s a drastically different style to what’s expected at a club like United. There’s also a very good chance he’ll leave us in a worse state than he found us in – because that’s just the way he operates.
The problem is that aside from Conte and maybe Zinedine Zidane, there’s very little else out there. That’s why this decision is crucial from a United standpoint. They absolutely have to get this one right.