Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson called him to personally apologise for criticising his selection decisions during the Norwegian's time in charge of Manchester United.
Solskjaer had starred as a player under Ferguson at Old Trafford, winning six Premier League titles, two FA Cups and the Champions League. He returned to the Red Devils in 2018 to replace Jose Mourinho as manager, spending three years in charge.
His final campaign as boss saw the return of superstar attacker Cristiano Ronaldo, 12 years after he left for Real Madrid. It was not the return many expected though, with Ronaldo having a negative impact if anything on the Red Devils.
Solskjaer struggled to get the best out of the Portuguese attacker and at one point benched him for a clash with Everton. Ronaldo would eventually come on, but the Red Devils could only manage a 1-1 draw against the Toffees.
At the time, video emerged of Ferguson criticising the decision to bench Ronaldo for that game. But Solskjaer has now revealed that the legenadary boss called to personally apologise for the incident.
“That’s the one time Sir Alex has ever apologised to me. He was caught on a video saying, ‘You should always play your best players,’ after Ronaldo started on the bench for one game," Solskjaer told 'An Evening with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ' event last week.
HAVE YOUR SAY! What should be Manchester United's line-up against Wolves? Comment below.
"He (Ferguson) rang me and apologised because he knows how difficult it is. I’m clever enough to stay away. It’s difficult enough to be the manager of Manchester United without the ex-managers trying to give you advice.”
Ferguson's comments came on an Instagram story posted by UFC superstar champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who had also been attending the game. The Scot was left perplexed by Solskjaer's decision to bench the superstar.
“I also think that when they saw Ronaldo wasn’t playing …” Ferguson said. He was then interrupted by the Russian, who said: “He came on in the second half.” Ferguson followed that up by saying: “I know but you should always start with your best players.”
At the time, Solskjaer insisted he had no issue with Ferguson's comments becoming public. And he even highlighted the fact that Ferguson himself had rotated his best players during his time in charge.
"I’m quite relaxed about it. I disagreed with the gaffer quite a few times and I told my wife quite a few times that I disagreed with him, but that never made headlines as a player. I’m sure Sir Alex knows that it doesn’t bother me," Solskjaer said.
"We all want to see Cristiano. We all want to, because he’s unique, he’s different, he’s had a career and everyone wants to come and watch him. ‘But the plain fact of it is he cannot play every single game that we play.
"He knows how difficult this job is anyway, the gaffer. He didn’t always play the same eleven. He took some risks at times to rest Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney or David Beckham, the best players that we had. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t."
