Terrace Talk: At Wembley, Ole must step out of playground

Even after all these years, it’s still hard to look at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and not see him as a puckish little boy who’s just been caught scrumping for apples. It is a key part of his immense charm and ongoing appeal, of course.

When I first met him almost 23 years ago, it was whilst waiting to be served at the Players’ Bar inside Old Trafford — and when he sidled up alongside me, before I’d recognised who he was, it felt like some kid was trying to sneakily get served by hiding among the grown-ups.

But playtime is now over for little Ole, and the more serious business must begin. After five equivalents of playground conker bouts against novices, culminating in an almost lazy José-era display against Reading, it’s time to take on the big boys. In their own backyard. Against a manager who just happens to be favourite to snatch all Ole’s sweets from him come June.

As Solskjaer rightly said after the game on Saturday, anything of that performance’s ilk being repeated at Wembley next Sunday will likely get severely punished. Pochettino is several steps above any boss Ole has faced hitherto, and his players’ qualities have also spoken eloquently for themselves.

In retrospect now, how clear it seems that the hammering inflicted on us by Spurs at Old Trafford back in August constituted a decree nisi for the failing Mourinho marriage, turned absolute by Liverpool last month. It will be hard to resist comparisons on Sunday; any points secured there are going to be regarded by everyone as significant. It’s all very well getting a ‘new boss bounce’ out of previously unhappy players against straw men opposition. But to achieve something so soon against a potential champion side with the same Mourinho players... well, you can already sense that the campaign would be starting in earnest next day.

That’s the campaign to appoint Ole permanently, of course, whose founder and leading member is, erm, one O G Solskjaer of Hobbit Lane, Kristiansund.

To be fair, it was rather refreshing to hear Ole so brazenly declare he badly wants the job, and imply that he would have be prised out of OT with forceps come the summer.

As I write, the UK Sunday papers are full of puffed-up stories about Ole’s alleged input into this and that at Old Trafford, including some supposedly still possible window moves. Hmm.

One gets the sense that there’s a lot of wishful thinking and writing going on. For Ed Woodward, one suspects the great silver lining of his admission of defeat over Mourinho was that he knew he would at least have six months without a whingeing manager making constant demands in his ear. If Ole’s got any sense, he’ll be making sure he causes as little mither as possible; slyly building up credit and a working relationship should be the priority.

One thing he probably knows he’ll have in the bag is the players’ vote. A source close to a first-team star told me last week that “things were even worse than anyone outside the club realised” under José, and that there was euphoria among many playing staff when the axe fell. “A text went around saying ‘we are back!’ as though they’d been let out of jail,” reported the snout.

Ole’s new playing instructions have also gone down well; for example, forwards are no longer harangued for failing to simultaneously be brilliant defenders, and the frenzied track-back is no longer taken to be the only acceptable gold standard of commitment. Which is all very well only if the forwards continue to perform and produce in front of goal; messrs Lukaku and Sánchez are certainly on thin ice in that regard.

By the time you and I meet here again next Monday, we’ll have a good idea whether the last few weeks have been anything other than just a brief honeymoonesque respite. These much-criticised and perhaps traumatised players have been given a last chance here; if they don’t take it, no-one should shed a tear if some are culled next summer. Erm; no pressure, though, lads...