{"id":678847,"date":"2026-01-07T01:04:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/678847\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T01:04:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:04:25","slug":"manchester-united-speak-to-ole-gunnar-solskjaer-over-interim-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/678847\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United speak to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer over interim role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester United have held initial conversations with a number of former players under consideration for the role of interim manager, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer thought to be the leading contender on a shortlist also believed to include Ruud van Nistelrooy and Michael Carrick. <\/p>\n

Darren Fletcher, the under-18s coach, has been handed temporary charge of the first team after the dismissal of Ruben Amorim<\/a> on Monday, with the 41-year-old former Scotland international assisted by Jonny Evans for the Premier League match away to Burnley on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

Fletcher, who asked for Sir Alex Ferguson\u2019s blessing before taking the job, is also expected to be in charge for the FA Cup third round tie against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\"Manchester<\/p>\n

Fletcher played for United for a decade under Ferguson\u2019s management<\/p>\n

ADRIAN DENNIS\/AFP<\/p>\n

He hinted that his team would play with four at the back at Turf Moor, thus ditching the 3-4-2-1 formation favoured by Amorim. \u201cIt\u2019s a club formation that we use and it\u2019s a formation that I\u2019ve been used to playing for a long time as well,\u201d Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

The Old Trafford hierarchy have a number of options to consider in the coming weeks, with the plan to recruit Amorim\u2019s long-term successor in the summer.<\/p>\n

Insiders at United<\/a> said any suggestion that Solskjaer is the preferred choice for interim was premature but his experience, having occupied the role for three years between 2018 and 2021, counts in his favour. As does the fact that the 52-year-old Norwegian still has a home in Cheshire and was photographed in the area on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Although Solskjaer did not win a trophy as manager, the football that United played during his time in charge was the most exciting of the post-Ferguson era.<\/p>\n

\"Middlesbrough<\/p>\n

Carrick was sacked by Middlesbrough at the end of last season after finishing tenth in the Championship<\/p>\n

NURPHOTO VIA\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Van Nistelrooy and Carrick are also popular figures, having also previously stepped in as caretaker managers at United in the past after the departures of Erik ten Hag and Solskjaer. Both have been out of work since leaving Leicester City and Middlesbrough respectively and would be interested in taking over at Old Trafford until the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Solskjaer\u2019s previous spell as United manager began under similar circumstances as an interim after Jos\u00e9 Mourinho was sacked in 2018, but the fan favourite subsequently got the job permanently and led United to third and second-place finishes in 2020 and 2021. He was sacked the following season when United slid to seventh, and has since had one inglorious six-month spell as Besiktas manager in Turkey.<\/p>\n

Speaking at his first press conference since taking the reins from Amorim, Fletcher said it was \u201csurreal\u201d to think he will be in charge of the team against Burnley. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing honour to be able to lead a Manchester United team,\u201d the former United midfielder, who played 342 times for the club, said.<\/p>\n

Before accepting United\u2019s request to step up temporarily from his role as under-18s coach, Fletcher spoke to his former manager Ferguson. \u201cI\u2019ve got a really good relationship with Sir Alex, so I wanted to speak to him first and ultimately to get his blessing to be perfectly honest with you,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cI think he deserves that respect. I wanted to run it by him and he was supportive of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he wanted the job full-time, Fletcher said: \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s not something I\u2019ve thought about. I\u2019m focusing on Burnley. I think that discussion is for after the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amorim came in for criticism from many of Fletcher\u2019s former team mates such asGary Neville and Paul Scholes, who are now media pundits. The Scot said he will not ask them to tone down their criticism if United continue to play badly under his leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t ask them to go easier [on you] because they\u2019re passionate guys and I think they have a right to their opinion and they\u2019re really good,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re engaging, they\u2019re good to listen to. It [criticism] is difficult but Manchester United is the biggest club in the world so that level of scrutiny and expectation comes as standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fletcher said that Bruno Fernandes and Mason Mount have recovered from their injuries and should be able to play at Turf Moor. If both are passed fit, two players from the previous match day squad will have to be dropped, which raises the possibility of the Scot\u2019s two sons, Jack and Tyler Fletcher, being omitted from the squad. Tyler is yet to make his debut but Jack made three substitute appearances under Amorim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were in the training group on Monday because that was already arranged before I got [appointed],\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been in the squad recently, but obviously we\u2019ve got a couple of players back from injury so we\u2019ll assess that tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Manchester<\/p>\n

Fletcher and Fernandes sat together at Old Trafford for United\u2019s 1-0 victory over Newcastle on Boxing Day<\/p>\n

ROBBIE JAY BARRATT\/GETTY<\/p>\n

A return for Fernandes would be a huge boost to United, who have missed their captain in the three matches since he suffered a hamstring injury in the 2-1 loss to Aston Villa on December 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cMason and Bruno were pushing to play against Leeds but they weren\u2019t quite ready, so they\u2019ve trained and they should be back in the squad [for the Burnley match],\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cBut they\u2019ll be on managed minutes as well because they\u2019ve obviously just returned to training.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United have held initial conversations with a number of former players under consideration for the role of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-678847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115851130752389244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}