This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
Speaking to GQ, ex-Manchester United forward Louis Saha has suggested even Sir Alex Ferguson would “struggle” managing at the club now.
What did he say?
The iconic boss left the Red Devils back in the summer of 2013 after clinching the Premier League title, and United have not managed to win it since. The likes of David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho have come and gone, whilst Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has also endured a difficult patch with reports claiming he was fighting for his job earlier this season.
Now, Saha has revealed that football’s major changes over the course of the past few years would make managing United now a difficult task even for someone like Ferguson.
When asked how Solskjaer’s current line-up compares to his own time at Old Trafford, he said: “It’s hard to compare two eras, because football has changed. United remains a huge club with a massive fan base. Commercially they are still doing great. They still want to bring young players through, but football has changed. There’s technology, VAR and social media now.
“Even Sir Alex Ferguson would struggle with this. He had a bit of social media to manage, but it wasn’t the same as now. Group spirit is lesser now; players are more individual. Players play for their branding, their own legacy, rather than the club legacy. The platform has changed.”
Modern football
Talk about getting out at the right time. Ferguson left United whilst he was at the top of the mountain, and ever since then, it has been a steep climb back down for the Red Devils. As Saha alludes to, the ever-growing influence and power of social media means every performance and game is scrutinised more than ever before, leading to wildly extreme opinions and verdicts as people attempt to out-shock each other.
Ferguson’s achievements at Old Trafford are unparalleled, and he surely would have gotten more out of the current United team in this new environment. But it is difficult to shake off the feeling that trying to win the Premier League and dominate the European scene would have been a major hurdle for even the great United boss to try and overcome.
