Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a leading contender to become Manchester United’s caretaker manager after holding talks with the club on Tuesday.
United are set to meet Solskjaer for face-to-face discussions about the role in the coming days and are planning to do the same with Michael Carrick, the club’s former midfielder.
United parted ways with Ruben Amorim on Monday, bringing to an end the Portuguese’s 14-month tenure in charge at Old Trafford.
Former midfielder and current Under-18s coach Darren Fletcher will take charge of the side for Wednesday’s Premier League game at Burnley, with Jonny Evans returning to the club to assist.
Solskjaer, a team-mate of Fletcher as a player, is an option being considered by the club as a potential longer-term, interim appointment until the end of the season with others also in the frame including Ruud van Nistelrooy, who previously stepped up and took interim charge following Erik ten Hag’s departure last season.
Carrick, who played for the club between 2006 and 2018 and was himself placed in temporary charge of the first team for three games following the departure of Solskjaer as manager in 2021, is also due to have a meeting with United about the caretaker job.
United are currently pursuing an approach that will see an interim solution put in place until the end of the current campaign before a thorough scour of the market to find a full-time replacement ahead of next season.
The club is firmly behind Fletcher in what is expected to be at least two games at the helm, but have also held early conversations with several candidates, including Solskjaer.
The Norwegian has a house in Cheshire and would be open to stepping in and helping a club he still has a deep affinity for, should the opportunity arise.
Solskjaer previously managed United for nearly three years between December 2018 and November 2021 (Chloe Knott – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Solskjaer previously managed United between December 2018 and November 2021, initially being appointed on a temporary basis following the exit of Jose Mourinho.
During that period, he recorded the club’s first back-to-back top-four league finishes since the Sir Alex Ferguson era and reached the 2021 Europa League final, losing to Villarreal on penalties.
United have finished no higher than second since Ferguson retired in 2013, with Solskjaer achieving it in the 2020-21 season. Mourinho also did so in 2017-18.
Solskjaer has been without a club since leaving Besiktas in August following their defeat in the Conference League play-offs. He had led them to a fourth-place finish in the Turkish Super Lig after taking over in January.
He has also managed Molde in his native Norway in two spells, winning the Tippeligaen title twice, first in 2011 and then again in 2012. Solskjaer took charge of Cardiff City in January 2014 but could not prevent them from finishing bottom of the Premier League and being relegated to the Championship. He left Cardiff in September 2014 after a poor start to the new season.
Solskjaer made more than 200 appearances for United as a player, winning six Premier League titles and famously scoring the winning goal in the 1999 Champions League final to secure the treble.
Fletcher has pledged to make United a team for supporters to be “proud of”, however long he is in charge.
“I don’t even think it’s in my wildest dreams that that was something that could potentially happen,” he said in his pre-match news conference on Tuesday. “Hopefully it looks like a Manchester United team that represents a bit of me, a team that fans can be proud of and I can be proud of.
“We’ve got good players who care and a lot of quality and I hope to give them a platform to show that. It’s their season, their careers, their opportunity, I’m here to help them.”
Amorim left United after a little over a year in the job following his appointment from Sporting CP in November 2024.
Replacing Ten Hag, Amorim presided over the majority of United’s worst-ever Premier League campaign, finishing 15th with just 42 points — their fewest in a top-flight season since they were relegated in 1973-74.
Sunday’s draw with Leeds United proved to be his final match in charge and left United sixth in the Premier League table.
‘A potential return that nobody saw coming’
Analysis by Chris McKenna
When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got the call to be Manchester United caretaker in 2018, it was surprising. He was Molde manager and his previous stint as a Premier League boss saw him relegated with Cardiff City.
For United to now return for their European Cup-winning hero over seven years later seems much of a shock given how much has changed for the club since he left in 2021.
Appointing him, even as caretaker, would be a hark back to the past of bringing in a club legend to try to improve the mood around Old Trafford. It may well do that among a section of the fan base who will always hold Solskjaer in their hearts, but it also seems far off the plans INEOS had for modernising the sporting structure at the club.
There were plenty of highs during his time first as caretaker and then permanent boss such as the comeback win over Paris St-Germain in the Champions League, big wins over Manchester City and back-to-back top three finishes in the Premier League.
There was a feeling they could take the next step to seriously challenge for the major trophies even after they lost the Europa League final in 2021.
Yet it all unravelled so very quickly in the 2021-22 campaign after the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo. Solskjaer was dismissed after five league defeats by November 20.
The run included a 5-0 thrashing by Liverpool at Old Trafford on a day their club’s bitter rivals could have scored more, a very one-sided 2-0 defeat at home in the Manchester derby and a 4-1 loss away at Watford.
There were tears as Solskjaer said goodbye in an interview with official club channels in November 2021 and he has always felt like there was unfinished business.
Out of work since being sacked by Besiktas in August, it seems he is now well placed to make a return that nobody saw coming.