Are Manchester United still giving too much influence to former manager Sir Alex Ferguson? It might sound crazy not to keep such a legendary manager involved behind the scenes, but there’s little sign it’s proving anything but disruptive at the moment.
Ferguson was seen pulling a thoroughly displeased face as he watched from the stands during the recent crushing 5-0 defeat at home to Liverpool, and he’d previously been spotted criticising Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s decision not to start Cristiano Ronaldo against Everton.
These little things are unlikely to be easy for any manager to deal with, and it seems Fergie was also key to convincing Solskjaer to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo this summer, even though the Norwegian tactician was initially unsure about the deal, according to the Independent.
Ferguson will always be a legend of football management, but it’s surely time for him to take more of a back seat at his old club.
The Scot has been out of football since 2013 and is probably no longer ideal to be having so much influence over the running of a modern football team.
Signing Ronaldo is far from the worst thing MUFC have done in recent years, but it has clearly come at a big cost.
The Portugal international is now pretty much undroppable, but also needs the entire team to be built around him, with his age now counting against him in terms of what he can contribute off the ball.
Compare that to the work rate of Liverpool or Man City’s forwards, and you can see why United are so far behind their rivals.
United needed someone stronger than Solskjaer to say no to Ferguson, but they could also surely benefit from having a specialist technical director to make the ultimate call on these issues, as so many of the best clubs do these days.