Former Manchester United player Paul Parker has suggested Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is on borrowed time at Old Trafford.
The Premier League side have made an inconsistent start to the 2019/20 season, though Solskjaer eased the pressure on him with victory against Tottenham taking the club to sixth in the Premier League.
Asked about what a good position for Man United to finish in this season, Parker is not optimistic. “Can they finish eighth?
“You have to look where they are at this moment in time, the games where they’ve dropped points and people may say even then they won’t finish eighth. They’ve given away soft points.”
United have not won a league title since Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season in charge (2012/13) and failed to qualify for the Champions League last season.
Solskjaer initially galvanised the dressing room when he first started by winning 14 of his 19 matches as caretaker boss.
However, since he was given the manager’s job on a permanent basis in March, the club have been on a bad run and they slipped out of contention to finish in the top four last season.
Parker has previously told talkSPORT there would be no point sacking Solskjaer as it would not necessarily solve all the problems the club has.
But in an exclusive interview with talkSPORT.com, he admitted the Norwegian ‘should be gone’ but was keen to stress Man United must sort out issues with the club’s hierarchy, too.
“All the stats say that he [Solskjaer] shouldn’t be in a job and other managers may have slightly better stats.
“I think I know and everyone else knows that he should be gone but I look at what can happen next and I don’t see any different that can happen from when Jose Mourinho arrived.
“It’s all about what’s happening above in and around that club. It’s still not a good environment for a top manager to come into.
“There needs to be a football-orientated person to take control of the buying and selling of players.”
A name who has been constantly linked with Man United is Mauricio Pochettino and his sacking as Tottenham boss led to rumours about him going to Old Trafford resurfacing.
But Parker isn’t convinced Pochettino would be given the time he needs to succeed.
He added: “I like Pochettino. I like what he did at Spurs and everything about what he does. I like his signings and the way he wants to play but the problem is I don’t think he’s going to get all that if he goes to Manchester United.
“People will say ‘he needs some time’. He’s not going to get time. People will be on to him saying ‘you did this at Spurs, do this here. We want it now.’
“Football’s a very now, now, now scenario and it’s become lose-lose, sack-sack.”
Paul Parker was speaking at the BonusCodeBets VAR-dict Panel event