Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed three players he wanted to sign during his time as Manchester United manager.
The former Manchester United manager was dispensed by the Reds in November 2021, after a rocky start to the season. Solskjaer had been in the hotseat since December 2018 and it was a rollercoaster journey full of highs and lows.
Since departing Manchester, Solskjaer has been linked with a number of jobs, including Bayern Munich and the Sweden national team.
Solskjaer recently spoke to the Stick to Football podcast about players he missed out on at United, including Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice. The England star moved from West Ham to Arsenal in the summer for £100 million and United were considered long-term admirers.
“I really like him (Rice) as a player,” Solskjaer said. “We’ve discussed him a few times and I think we would’ve done well with him in midfield.
“His legs, covering the pitch, and I think he improved a lot on his playmaking as well. Obviously, he would’ve cost some money, but we could’ve and should’ve gone for him.”
Solskjaer also spoke about attempts to sign Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland before they joined Borussia Dortmund.
“Jude, he was in the building,” he added. “I was there, Sir Alex Ferguson was there, Bryan Robson and Eric Cantona were all there that day when he came to the club. We all spoke to him and sold it as well as we could.
“He knew that he wanted a certain amount of minutes in the first team. He was 17 at the time and he was the most mature 17-year-old I’ve ever met. He had it all planned out.
“I had him (Haaland) in Molde, for two seasons. The summer before I got [appointed at United], I rang the club and said ‘You’ve got to sign this boy, he’ll be top class.’ That was June, July 2018, and they said no, they had enough reports on players.
“Then I became the caretaker manager and we’d sold Haaland to RB Salzburg. I tell the club straight away to buy him while he has a release clause. We knew that then, and no one else would’ve paid the money – €20 million, it would’ve been a bargain. Even though with his links with Alfie and Manchester City and Leeds. It was the club’s decision to not go for it then.
“We never made bids or went in for him, until after he started scoring for Salzburg. By then, Borussia Dortmund were there, Juventus were there, everyone was there. His release clause then was still good – €60 million.”
Rice has turned out to be a good signing for Arsenal, while Haaland and Bellingham are now recognised among the best players in the world.
It’s a shame Solskjaer never had a proper recruitment team behind him at United.
Subscribe to the Stretty News podcast Strettycast for weekly episodes on Manchester United. You can also sign up to the ad-free Stretty Newsletter. Get the Stretty News verdict on all matters Manchester United.
