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IT’S OLE OVER
Does social media have a major effect on football manager sackings? By Samuel Leah Newspaper Sport Editor
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anchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær was sacked this week following a turbulent three years at Old Trafford, which culminated in a difficult 3 months at the end in which his team lost 7 out of their last 11 league games and conceded the same number of goals as bottom of the table Newcastle. Solskjær possessed a rich and talented squad during his time at the club, and many would have thought that with the incomings in the previous summer window including England starlet Jadon Sancho and United veteran Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as former Real Madrid centre-half Raphael Varane to strengthen the defence, that their season would be a successful one. But, after a run of embarrassing defeats, the plug has been pulled. United’s desire to hang on to Solskjær could have been due to the history the Norwegian has at the club, having spent 11 years of his career in Manchester. He originally joined the club as manager on an interim basis but was given the full time job after a run of good form. Ole has had runs of bad form in the past, but quickly overcame them well; an example being earlier this year when United went on a 28 game unbeaten run away from home, beating the record set by Arsenal’s 2003-04 ‘Invincibles’ team. Though it seems this time round, and after a 4-1 thrashing by lower table Watford, the club were convinced Ole’s time was up. Michael Carrick, former player and assistant under Solskjær has since taken temporary charge as interim manager, but United should be cautious and not make the same mistake twice, even if Carrick begins to rack up positive results. United have the quality of player as well as an extremely strong youth team to be able to challenge top teams, but under Ole they lacked tactical direction and ulti-
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mately lost morale when goals were conceded and games were lost. What the club needs is an experienced and tactically impressive manager, who can also increase morale through effective player communication and man-management. Carrick is well-known within the club just like Solskjær was and morale could improve slightly during his time, but personally I think it’s important that United are not distracted by the desire to have a club veteran as coach with no managerial
ter a sacking, so for Ole to even sit that interview shows tremendous love for the club and desire to see them win, even after his departure. It’s a way to remember that managers put a tremendous amount of effort into improving their teams and winning games, especially those that have such a deep history with the club. The process of being sacked as a football coach is never a pleasant one, and unfortunately a manager sacking usually comes mixed with negative
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experience, and seek to appoint a big name so they can return to form. In his last few days at the club Ole had a sit down interview in which he thanked the club for the experience, stressing how much the club meant to him through teary eyes. As a football fan it was tough to watch, and it’s not normally a common thing for a manager to be interviewed so soon af-
social media buzz. Fans are quick to flock to platforms like Twitter and Reddit and heap criticism on their team’s manager after a run of bad performances, or even a one-off loss. Former United player Phil Neville spoke out about the swarm of social media criticism and negative reactions that fans have had as of recently, giving the example that you wouldn’t walk into
a shop and tell the owner that “you want them to be sacked”. This was following the dismissal of Steve Bruce at Newcastle, with reasoning being a mixture of poor performances, and a new ownership at the club seeking a fresh start. Bruce was open about the abuse he received, stating that he “considered retirement” after things got out of hand, with his wife and members of his family also being affected. This is utterly wrong given the decades of experience that Bruce has in the game, as a player, coach and manager. Many Premier League managers came to Bruce’s support: current Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta added that he had the utmost respect for Bruce, and agreed that the new wave of social media could even put people off from managing altogether, as well as mentioning that he was fearful for his children to use social media due to the current landscape and society we live in. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola urged Bruce to ‘not pay any attention’ to any of the comments. Solskjær in the past has deactivated his Twitter account due to abuse from United fans, and in a recent post match interview around Halloween this year, had to stop a post match interview due to a fan who was shouting insults from behind the camera, causing Solskjær to laugh and reply: “Can I do this interview and then you can abuse me after, eh?”. Managing in the Premier League is most certainly a tough task, and managers will have periods of positive as well as negative reactions from fans. Social media toxicity is something that seems to get worse every day, and it’s something that has caused me to limit the amount of time I spend on social media over the last year. I think Ole Gunnar Solskjær's sacking was fair, but the way fans treated him in the lead up to his departure was completely and absolutely unfair, and is something that needs to improve in the game going forward.
Photo by Dan Parker