Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could lose his job if Man Utd lose to Cardiff, says Paul Merson
Manchester United will have „serious meetings“ or even sack Ole Gunnar Solskjaer if they lose to Cardiff, Paul Merson believes.
Solskjaer was initially named caretaker manager at Old Trafford in December and won 10 of his first 11 games in charge, taking the club into Champions League qualifying contention.
However, the former United player, who was appointed as permanent manager in March, has led the club to just two wins in his last 10 games at the helm and their hopes of Champions League qualification were ended by a 1-1 draw at 20th-placed Huddersfield last weekend – and Merson thinks another defeat, to relegated Cardiff, could have serious implications.
„Nothing surprises me in football, if they lost to Cardiff who knows what would happen,“ he told Sky Sports. „I wouldn’t know. I don’t see Solskjaer being on a Mourinho contract, where you’d have to pay £15m to get him out of it – I think there’ll be serious meetings if they don’t win this game.
„You’d have to seriously think if they’re not wiping the floor with Cardiff, they’ve made a mistake with Solskjaer. If he’d had this run at the start, would he be permanent manager now? No, he wouldn’t.“
United face a huge summer of recruitment on the back of a high-profile drive to appoint a sporting director at Old Trafford, but several months of searching have so far proved unsuccessful.
Merson thinks things could be tough for the club no matter who joins the backroom staff at Old Trafford – and thinks their struggles may not be over any time soon as a result.
He said: „Everyone needs top players – Bayern Munich need top players, Real Madrid need top players, and everyone else will too.
„I don’t see how you go to Manchester United. If you’re a £90m player and United come in for you, and other teams come in for you, you have to weigh it up. How far are we behind these other teams? It’s a long way. It’s not one or two players.
„They were 20 something points off last season, 20 something more this season, you’re talking six players; for me, I think they’ll struggle to get players.
„Solskjaer’s said agents are calling him, yeah of course they are. They know United are in a situation where they’ll play money willy-nilly, and willy-nilly wages, and that’s what’s happened for the last God-knows how long at United.
„Sanchez? Man City want him, oh yeah, we’ll pay him whatever he wants. They’ve got to draw a line sooner or later, not just bring in players because they know Manchester United will pay top dollar.“
Soccer Accumulator Bonus
Our fantastic Euro Soccer accumulator offer gives you the chance to earn a bonus of up to 100% on accumulators on the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the group and knockout stages of the Champions League.
This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga 1 or UEFA Champions League.
The maximum bonus that you can receive is ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. The bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based .on the remaining active stake. If a qualifying bet is edited .using our Edit Bet feature. The bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply. Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses. Such as Lucky 15’s or Lucky .31’s do not apply for this offer.
If your bet is successful, we will add the following bonuses to your returns:
Bet Type Bonus
14-folds and upwards 100% bonus
Terms and Conditions
Applies to straight pre-match accumulator bets on the Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga .1 or Australian A-League matches. Maximum bonus ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. Soccer Accumulator Bonus does not apply to Double Chance bets or combination. bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15’s, Lucky 31’s etc.
If any selections are postponed/void then the bonus will still apply, but the percentage bonus added will reflect the actual number of winning selections. For example, an 8-fold accumulator with 7. winners and 1 postponed match will receive a 30% .bonus to returns.
The bonus part of your returns will be added to your account within 24 hours of your final selection having played.
This bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based on the remaining active stake.
If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply.
Where any term of the offer or promotion is breached or there is any evidence of a series of bets placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments, free bets, risk free bets or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 reserves the right to reclaim the bonus element of such offers and in their absolute discretion either settle bets at the correct odds, void the free and risk free. bets or void any bet funded by the deposit bonus.
In addition bet365 .reserve the right to levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the deposit bonus, free bet, risk free bet or additional payment to cover administrative costs. We further reserve the right to ask any customer to provide sufficient documentation for us to be satisfied in our absolute discretion as to the customer’s identity prior to us crediting any bonus, free bet, risk free bet or offer to their account.
All bet365 offers are intended for recreational players and bet365 may in its sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in all or part of any promotion.
bet365 reserves the right to amend, cancel, reclaim or refuse any promotion at its own discretion.
