Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's 'trophy' comments could help earn him Manchester United job

Solskjaer's understanding of the tune United dances to could help him get the permanent job over Mauricio Pochettino

When Manchester United sought an temporary successor to Jose Mourinho, they wanted someone who understood the club’s fundamental values and who would instil the principles upon which it is founded.

They turned to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He has since restored a brand of direct, attacking football, built the team around its most naturally-gifted players and offered opportunities to those coming through the club’s fabled youth ranks.

A record of eight wins in eight speaks for itself, but the case that Solskjaer is building to take the job permanently does not start and end with results. He has also united a dispirited dressing room, inspired once-disheartened players and brought back an old, familiar confidence.

The Norwegian was not under serious consideration for the permanent manager’s job when he was approached for this temporary role last month. Yet the manner in which he has approached his task – as much as the faultless results he has achieved – now makes him a genuine candidate.

Mauricio Pochettino remains well-fancied to succeed Mourinho permanently, though it would be wrong to suggest that the Tottenham Hotspur manager is a certainty or even likely to be chosen for the job, especially given the way in which Solskjaer has started.

It is difficult, too, to see how Pochettino’s comments on winning silverware this past weekend would sit at Old Trafford. After Tottenham’s second domestic cup elimination in the space of four days, the Argentine questioned the worth of trophy-winning itself on Sunday.

“Again we’re going to have the debate whether a trophy will take the club to the next level,” he said. “I don’t agree with it. It only builds your ego. The most important thing for Tottenham right now is to always be in the top four.”

They were words of a man tired of defending himself from the same line of attack. The failure to win a trophy is the one charge regularly levelled against Pochettino and it is an uncharitable one.

Even if he never brings silverware to the club, he has elevated Tottenham to a competitive level they had only previously threatened to reach. For the weakest member of the Premier League’s ‘top six’ to regularly place among in its top three is a remarkable achievement.

The failure to win a domestic cup does not diminish that, particularly in an era when domestic trophies are shared between a shrinking set of clubs and it is generally agreed that they carry less significance than they used to.

Would Pochettino’s work over the last five years seriously be considered more impressive or would his Tottenham be thought of as a better side today if he could list the 2015 League Cup – lost to Mourinho’s Chelsea – on his CV?

Or, to put it another way, if United maintain this form until May and earn a top-four or even a top-three finish in the process, would a domestic cup win for Pochettino this season – never mind four years ago – have killed the momentum behind Solskjaer? The answer is no.

Yet United is not a club like the Tottenham that Pochettino walked into in the summer of 2014. It is not straining to break into an emerging elite, searching for acceptance through consistent league finishes.

It is already part of the elite, a long-accepted member of the established order, and all it desires is a return to the days when it was truly dominant.

Solskjaer was reluctant to address Pochettino’s comments directly when put to him on Monday morning, but on the subject of winning trophies, he appealed to that same hunger for total victory. United are “about winning trophies,” he said. “Of course we are.”

“That’s not the dream though, to be top four,” he added. “We’re Man United, you should always aim to win the league. We can’t do that this year but we’ve just got to look forward to that again because we have to get back to that.

“We’ve got the Champions League, we’ve got the FA Cup, we can’t just say top four and that’s it. We’ve got to look at: ‘Can we win something this year?’ As I’ve said, I go into every single game as a Man United manager thinking we can win this game.”

It was another moment when Solskjaer showed he knows the particular tune his old club dances to. Another moment from his first six weeks in charge that showed he simply ‘gets’ Manchester United.

Those still certain that Pochettino will replace Mourinho may be proved right come May. Yet before placing any wagers, they should realise that their man has to displace one responsible for the crowning moment in United’s greatest-ever achievement.

Nights like 26 May 1999 create bonds between players and clubs that no top-four finish ever could and sometimes, such bonds help carry someone all the way into the manager’s office.