Report: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in talks to become permanent Manchester United manager

Ever since Manchester United finally sacked Jose Mourinho, Tottenham fans have been living with the media-driven narrative of Mauricio Pochettino leaving Spurs to head to the Theater of Dreams. It’s been like an anvil hanging over the heads of the club — Pochettino was considered the front runner by the Glazer family to take over on a permanent basis this summer while interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, himself on loan from Molde, kept the trains running on time.

But then the Baby-Faced Assassin did something nobody expected — he won. A lot. And now, according to Miguel Delaney in the Independent, Solskjaer is holding talks with United’s ownership to assume the managerial position full time.

Speaking as a (somewhat) neutral, it’s hard to say he doesn’t deserve it. Solskjaer has taken a team of talented but underachieving United players that were floundering under Mourinho and propelled them into the top four. And it appears that it’s more than just putting an arm around their collective shoulders and saying “Go have fun out there” — whatever he’s doing, it’s working.

The report also states that Solskjaer has lept to the front of the queue not only because of his performance and status as a United legend, but also because Pochettino would be prohibitively expensive to get, costing up to £50m to pry him away from Spurs.

But most importantly, if this report is accurate, it would finally mean the media can stop linking Pochettino to a managerial position at another Premier League club and go back to linking Pochettino to the managerial position at Real Madrid and PSG. That might not sound like an improvement, but oh buddy, it really, really is.