{"id":290565,"date":"2023-09-20T08:35:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T08:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=290565"},"modified":"2023-09-20T08:35:50","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T08:35:50","slug":"solskjaer-says-ronaldo-was-a-wrong-signing-at-man-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/solskjaer-says-ronaldo-was-a-wrong-signing-at-man-united\/","title":{"rendered":"Solskjaer says Ronaldo was a &apos;wrong&apos; signing at Man United"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Ole Gunnar Solskjaer attacks his old players at Man United over how he lost his job when &#8216;egos came out&#8217; &#8211; while speaking on &#8216;wrong&#8217; signing Cristiano Ronaldo &#8211; and reveals stars refused to be captain<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Solskjaer was fired by Man United three months after Ronaldo&#8217;s return<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He admits re-signing the star was &#8216;difficult to turn down&#8217; but &#8216;turned out wrong&#8217;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport&#8217;s podcast It&#8217;s All Kicking Off!\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has admitted &#8216;it was very difficult to turn down&#8217; the chance to bring Cristiano Ronaldo back to Manchester United\u00a0&#8211; but the decision &#8216;turned out wrong&#8217; as &#8216;egos&#8217; lost him the job.<\/p>\n<p>The Portuguese star returned for a second spell at Old Trafford amid enormous hype in August 2021 but Solskjaer was fired as manager just three months later.<\/p>\n<p>It was widely believed at the time that Ronaldo, who cost \u00a312.85million from Juventus, was signed at the behest of executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward without Solskjaer&#8217;s input.<\/p>\n<p>The Norwegian coach had to fit Ronaldo into his side, though the forward performed well during his first season back, scoring 24 times.<\/p>\n<p>Solskjaer, who hasn&#8217;t taken another management job in almost two years since his dismissal, said egos came to the fore during a disastrous run of results that cost him his position.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/20\/08\/75629425-12539133-image-a-4_1695195466216.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has admitted the decision to bring Cristiano Ronaldo back to Manchester United &#8216;turned out wrong&#8217; after he was sacked three months after the star&#8217;s return<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/20\/08\/75629465-12539133-image-a-13_1695195613950.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Solskjaer was sacked following a dismal 4-1 defeat at Watford in November 2021\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/20\/08\/75629787-12539133-image-a-25_1695196658381.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Bruno Fernandes and Cristiano Ronaldo react to the shock defeat in Solskjaer&#8217;s last game<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was a decision that was very difficult to turn down and I felt we had to take it, but it turned out wrong,&#8217; Solskjaer told The Athletic of Ronaldo&#8217;s return.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It felt so right when he signed and the fans felt that at that Newcastle game, when Old Trafford was rocking [Ronaldo scored twice in a 4-1 win].<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He was still one of the best goalscorers in the world, he was looking strong.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;When you have a group you need everyone to pull in the same direction. When things didn&#8217;t go right, you could see certain players and egos came out.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>A torrid run of results sealed Solskjaer&#8217;s fate in the autumn of 2021. It started with a 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa in which Bruno Fernandes missed a late penalty.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>United then lost 4-2 at Leicester before collapsing in embarrassing fashion to a 5-0 home defeat to rivals Liverpool.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A 2-0 home defeat to Manchester City in which United were completely outclassed and a miserable 4-1 loss at Watford in which Harry Maguire was sent off sealed Solskjaer&#8217;s fate.<\/p>\n<p>Ralf Rangnick took over as interim manager for the remainder of that 2021-22 season and was astonished at what he found.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/20\/08\/75629497-12539133-image-a-14_1695195720090.jpg\" height=\"463\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo made a sensational return when he scored twice against Newcastle in September<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/20\/08\/75629513-12539133-image-a-15_1695195760205.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>He also scored crucial late goals in the Champions League against Villarreal and Atalanta\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/20\/08\/75629515-12539133-image-a-16_1695195800824.jpg\" height=\"425\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>But things quickly went downhill during a torrid run of results that led to Solskjaer&#8217;s sacking<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The club he found in November 2021 was different from September 2021,&#8217; Solskjaer added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I told him when I gave my opinion on every player. Things had soured, the collective had been lost and that&#8217;s not Man United, where teams are built on the collective.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Some players felt they should&#8217;ve played more and weren&#8217;t constructive to the environment. That&#8217;s a huge sin for me.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Solskjaer also revealed that some players rejected the opportunity to be United&#8217;s captain and &#8216;weren&#8217;t as good as their own perception of themselves.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>While not naming any names, Solskjaer hinted that some refused to train in order to force exits from the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12539133\/Ole-Gunnar-Solskjaer-attacks-Man-United-players-egos-came-lose-job-condemning-Cristiano-Ronaldo-wrong-signing-revealing-stars-turned-captaincy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ole Gunnar Solskjaer attacks his old players at Man United over how he lost his job when &#8216;egos came out&#8217; &#8211; while speaking on &#8216;wrong&#8217; signing Cristiano Ronaldo &#8211; and reveals stars refused to be captain Solskjaer was fired by Man United three months after Ronaldo&#8217;s return He admits re-signing the star was &#8216;difficult to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Solskjaer says Ronaldo was a &amp;apos;wrong&amp;apos; signing at Man United - Sports Life Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/solskjaer-says-ronaldo-was-a-wrong-signing-at-man-united\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Solskjaer says Ronaldo was a &amp;apos;wrong&amp;apos; 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