Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has reiterated that his club are all about winning trophies after Tottenham Hotspur’s manager Mauricio Pochettino said that trophies only build ego.
Spurs loss to Crystal Palace on Sunday ended the club’s FA Cup run just days after they were knocked out of the League Cup by Chelsea and Pochettino said that it is more important for Spurs to consistently qualify for the Champions League.
“We are going to create a debate that to win a trophy is going to help the club,” Pochettino said. “I don’t agree with that. That only builds your ego.
He continued: “In reality, the most important thing is being consistently in the top four and playing Champions League. That is going to help the club to achieve the last step. Today the club is doing fantastically, it’s so successful. In the last four or five years, we’ve been fighting in different ways to achieve what the club needs, to be in the level of Chelsea, United, City or Arsenal or Liverpool.”
Manchester United were the biggest earners in football last year with a revenue split of €676.3m, €1.7m more than second placed Real Madrid and €320.7m more than Spurs, and Solskjaer insisted that the goal at Manchester United is always to win titles and compete for trophies.
“I am not here to discuss what Pochettino says and what other managers say,” said Solskjaer.
“First of all, it’s the next game but we are about winning trophies – of course we are – and we can’t win the league this year.
“We are still in the cup, we are going to try to win the FA Cup, of course. I think every manager wants to win every game, so I don’t think that is the point he was making.”
Pochettino is one of the lead contenders to replace Solskjaer at Manchester United should the club choose to move on from the Norwegian at the end of the season but former teammate Phil Neville has said that the interim boss deserves to be named as the club’s manager on a permanent basis.
“He’s got a ruthless side to him,” Neville said on the BBC before Manchester United’s fourth round FA Cup tie with Arsenal on Friday night.
“Even when he was playing he was a coach. I sat next to him on the bench, for a lot of the time he would coach, he would talk through the games, he would study games afterwards with analysis.
“For someone who could study the game as well as he could and who could come on and affect a game like he did he showed his intent to be a coach when he was older.
“I think he’s got the best seat in the house, I really do. It’s easy for people to say go out and get Pochettino or [Zinedine] Zidane and I think if he keeps winning he’ll end up with the job.”
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