Time will tell if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can really hold on to the Man United job, but this now has the feeling of a battle that he simply can’t win.
Even if he does manage to put some victories together the knives will be out after the next failure to win, and it also sounds like Antonio Conte is waiting in the wings if the board decides to make the change.
The Mirror have also reported that Conte has lined up a stalwart from his Inter Milan team in Stefan de Vrij to be his first signing, and it could have an interesting effect on the defense.
The obvious fit would see a back three of the Dutchman, Harry Maguire and Raphael Varane, but United have plenty of attacking players who like to play in a wider role so there’s still a chance that Conte moves to a back-four.
What that would mean is either Varane or Maguire would need to drop out of the side, and it really wouldn’t be a massive surprise if Maguire was finally taken out of the side.
Maguire is a leader and the current team is probably better with him in it, but the standards are still too low. The former Leicester man has been an automatic starter because Solskjaer doesn’t have the clout behind the scenes to make the call to bench him due to the £80m fee that was spent on him.
Conte will have no fear of ruffling a few feathers and simply doing what he thinks gives the team the best chance to win, so it will be interesting to see how he approaches the role if he’s given the opportunity.