Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Dominic Booth

Solskjær, Mourinho and a warning for Amorim after Manchester United

José Mourinho, Ruben Amorim and Ole Gunnar Solskjær.
Managing Manchester United sure ain’t easy. Composite: Getty Images, Shutterstock

UNITED WE FALL

The modern football manager might wear classic Reeboks, or knackered Converse, or trackie bottoms tucked in socks but, to continue paraphrasing the Arctic Monkeys song, there ain’t no romance in our game no more. Nothing endures. The average managerial tenure tends to last between 18 months and two years. For Ole Gunnar Solskjær at Besiktas, it was a little more than seven months; José Mourinho got 14 at Fenerbahce. And so the pair, intrinsically linked by their sequential spells at Manchester United, find themselves on similar paths again, their sackings from Turkish nearly-clubs coming within hours of each other this week. Both have been caught in the meat grinder of Uefa’s endless European qualifiers. Solskjær’s brave Besiktas boys were downed by Ineos-owned Lausanne in the Tin Pot playoffs on Thursday night. A day earlier, Mourinho’s men were ousted by Benfica in the Bigger Cup equivalent.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.