Manchester United news: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says he is planning for long-term

The Norwegian caretaker feels he has put his stamp on the club since taking charge

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says he is planning for the long-term at Manchester United, regardless of whether he gets the manager’s job on a permanent basis.

Solskjaer, the club’s caretaker-manager for the rest of this season, is working with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward to try to turn United back into Premier League title contenders.

Woodward is in the process of seeking a permanent successor to Jose Mourinho, who was sacked in December, with Solskjaer among the contenders after winning nine and drawing the other of his first 10 matches in charge.

Mauricio Pochettino, Zinedine Zidane and Diego Simeone are also being considered, although no decision is expected until the end of the season.

While seeking a permanent manager, United have worked on getting key players committed to long-term contracts; the club announced a four-year deal for centre-back Phil Jones on Friday morning, which followed recent agreements for both Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial.

Solskjaer said: “Every day I feel that I do help the club and put my stamp on it.

“But decisions on players’ futures are sometimes not down to me. It can be from the players: Do they want to stay or move on?

“We have a vision of how we want to look in a few years and we have to think long term and also short term and I've got a picture of what this Manchester United team should look in a couple of years but I put my views to Ed Woodward and the club.”

Solskjaer, meanwhile, has told his Manchester United players to forget about Paris Saint-Germain for now and focus instead on continuing their fine Premier League form.

United side visit Fulham on Saturday, three days before the first leg of their Champions League last-16 meeting with the French champions at Old Trafford.

Solskjaer has won nine out of 10 games in charge at Manchester United (Getty) (Getty Images)

The meeting with PSG is widely seen as the first of three matches in 13 days that will define United’s season, with an FA Cup fifth-round trip to Chelsea and a Premier League home match against Liverpool completing the sequence.

Solskjaer, though, wants to ensure that United do not lose their focus against a Fulham side who are next to bottom of the Premier League.

He was not entirely satisfied with the manner of United’s performance as they won 1-0 at Leicester last Sunday, and is determined to avoid a lowering of standards.

Solskjaer said: “Of course you take one step at a time and that’s one of the goals we’ve set – that we move into the top four. And if we do so, we want to stay there and improve on that.

“Of course, the past two months have been fantastic with the points we’ve got, so consistency is now the key word, that we keep on winning games but in a better way than say the Leicester one. I felt that we hung on. It was good enough but we shouldn’t be happy with just good enough.

“We want to improve. The Fulham game coming up is a character revealer. Do we have the focus on what’s important, which is always the next game in football? And can we forget about PSG and all the games coming up?

“I know the focus around the place and in the media has been about the PSG game for a long time, and Chelsea and Liverpool but they’re not the games that will move us up the table.”