Man Utd boss Solskjaer blames Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal for transfer problems

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has blamed his predecessors.

Posted Sunday, October 04, 2020 by Express.co.uk

Manchester United head coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer thinks his current transfer issues of not being able to afford Jadon Sancho's £108million price tag is down to overspending in past regimes.

Former Barcelona and Holland manager Van Gaal spent spent two years in the Old Trafford hotseat between 2014 and 2016.

During that time he splashed out on Angel Di Maria (£67m), Ander Herrera (£32m), Morgan Schneiderlin (£31m), Memphis Depay (£30m) and Matteo Darmian (£16m) - all of whom flopped.

Van Gaal's departure led to Mourinho's arrival but even he had little luck in the transfer window.

Romelu Lukaku (£76m), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£38m), Alexis Sanchez (£30m) and Diogo Dalot (£20m) all failed to impress.

Solskjaer has been backed himself with big-money additions Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Bruno Fernandes and Donny van de Beek.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has blamed former Man Utd managers for his transfer problem

The Norwegian is calling on the club to spend even more on Sancho as he outlined the England international as his priority target at the start of the summer.

However, he feels past failures are stopping him bringing in the reinforcement he desperately wants.

“It does come into it," Solskjaer said. “I don't want to talk about names who didn't have a successful career at Man United before moving on because there are different reasons for people not being a success at the club.

“But, yes, we now have to be very thorough and very sure when we put big money down for players.

“They have to be right for the future, they have to be right for now, and they have to be right for the group that is already here.

“It's much more complex than just pointing a finger at a player and saying 'he's got the quality'.

“When you sign players you go into a thorough process to make sure the ones you bring in are right for the club.

“It's easy to pick out the best players in the world. Every club knows about them.

“The process of recruitment means it is vital to make sure that when you invest money it is well spent.

“I think the people we have involved to monitor and identify players are doing a good job.

“We've lost a few good players who have gone on to do well at other clubs - but we felt that we wanted to go in a different direction.

“When I came in, my view was that we had to give young players a chance, that we had to see if we could find something in our own ranks – and that has worked well.”