“You’ve got to sign this boy. He’ll be top class.”
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been speaking about his time as Manchester United manager, and the three elite players he recommended the club to sign.
Solsjkaer, speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, said that he urged the Red Devils to sign Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham, and Declan Rice.
All three have since become world-class footballers, while Man United have largely wasted big money on players who have underperformed, such as Antony.
Solskjaer said that he recommended Haaland, whom he coached for Moldes, to the Old Trafford club twice, and on both occasions, they didn’t follow up on his suggestion.
Solskjaer names the three star players Man United missed out on when he was manager
“I had him [Haaland] in Molde, for two seasons,” the Norwegian said.
“The summer before I got here (to Man United), I rang the club and said, ‘You’ve got to sign this boy. He’ll be top class’.
“That was June, or July 2018, and they said no. They had enough reports on players.”
Solskjaer then said that when he became Man United manager at the end of 2018, he once again recommended that the club sign Haaland. The decision-makers at the club, however, opted against signing the striker.
According to Solskjaer, Haaland was available for just €20m due to a buy-out clause.
“Then I became the caretaker manager, and we’d sold Haaland to RB Salzburg,” he said.
“I tell the club straight away to buy him while he has a release clause. We knew that then, and no one else would’ve paid the money – €20m, it would’ve been a bargain.
“It was the club’s decision to not go for it then. We never made bids or went in for him, until after he started scoring for Salzburg.
“By then, Borussia Dortmund were there, Juventus were there, everyone was there. His release clause then was still good – €60m.”
Solskjaer also spoke about how the club missed out on signing Jude Bellingham.
The England midfielder joined Borussia Dortmund from Birmingham City in 2020. Man United, however, were in contention to sign Bellingham.
They showed him around the club’s training ground, and introduced him to club legends, in an effort to secure his signature. Bellingham, however, joined Dortmund instead, and has since joined Real Madrid.
“Jude, he was in the building,” Solskjaer said.
“I was there, Alex Ferguson was there, Bryan Robson and Eric Cantona were all there that day when he came to the club.
“We all spoke to him and sold it as well as we could. He knew what he wanted, a certain amount of minutes in the first team.
“He was 17 at the time, and he was the most mature 17-year-old I’ve ever met – he had it all planned out.”
Finally, Solskjaer spoke about his interest in signing Declan Rice.
“I really, really like him as a player,” the former Man United manager said.
“We’ve (Roy Keane and Solskjaer) discussed him a few times. I think we would’ve done well with him in midfield. I think his legs, covering the pitch. He has improved a lot with his playmaking.
“He was available at the time. Obviously, he would’ve cost some money, we could have and should have gone for him.”
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