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The verb ‘sleeping’ is one often associated with Manchester United Football Club in their pursuit of the return to the very pinnacle of English football.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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So often, the ‘sleeping giants’ have been dreaming of meaningful silverware, but, in reality, United are sleepwalking into a nightmare of mistakes already made.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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If anything is indicative of the Red Devils’ downfall, it’s the perpetual cycle of making the same mistakes over and over without learning from them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n Whether it’s over-inflated signings, exciting – but unproven – European managers, or failing to overhaul entire squads before deadwood returns, it’s safe to say United have been in a rut for the last decade (at least compared to their lofty expectations).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Whenever things appear to be back on the up, and hope rears its misleading head, the crumbling foundations bring the whole thing crashing down.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n This is why Manchester United must be wary of the ghost of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, embodied in the form of Michael Carrick.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The archetype is well-known; former legend of the club comes in as caretaker manager and bails out a few buckets of water from a sinking ship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Fans, pundits and ex-players will cry “he knows the club, he knows the philosophy, he has Sir Alex Ferguson’s blessing”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Well if blessings won football matches, United surely wouldn’t have any more problems to solve.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n It doesn’t take much for fans to hop on the bandwagon either, as we saw with Ruud van Nistelrooy’s short tenure before he got Leicester relegated. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n While it cannot be disputed that Michael Carrick has done a fantastic job turning the club around and has all but guaranteed Champions League football, the red flags linger ominously in the far future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Put it this way, unless you’re Tottenham Hotspur, the new manager bounce is to be expected, and it didn’t take a genius to start playing Bruno Fernandes – the best midfielder in the world – in his usual number 10 position, do away with the nervy back five, and actually play Kobbie Mainoo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Effectively, all Carrick had to do was not continue to take a chainsaw to his own ship like Ruben Amorim was doing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A former player with a good vibe comes in to lift the dire mood left in the camp by a characteristically chaotic manager such as Jos\u00e9 Mourinho.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Things instantly picked up and the good results flew in with a nice win against Man City to boot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Before you know it, United are in the Champions League and Ole is “at the wheel”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n However, a couple of years pass and the man is a shell of himself, struggling to adapt to tactics of the highest level and overrun by self-important players making the rules themselves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Ole ends up as a supply teacher in his own school, lacking the authority to put those out of line in to place and the losses pile up, leading to his eventual sacking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The parallels with Michael Carrick, despite it being early days, are too clear to ignore – we’ve been here before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\nIs all of this not exactly what happened with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n