“Roy should have been there, but he wasn’t!”
OIe Gunnar Solskjaer insists it was a “coincidence” that two Manchester United legends happened to be in the building when the club was trying to secure the services of then-teenage sensation Jude Bellingham.
The Norwegian was a special guest on the latest Stick to Football episode, and mentioned the three big signings he recommended but United were not keen on – Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice and Erling Haaland (twice).
Solskjaer, who led United to a second and third place league finish in his two full seasons with the club, opened up on the process behind trying to get a 17-year-old Bellingham to sign up.
Bellingham was with Birmingham City at the time and ended up signing for Borussia Dortmund. Solskjaer spoke about the red carpet rolled out to the young midfielder.
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“Jude was in the building. He knew what he wanted. You can’t ask for a lot more from a midfielder. I was there, as the manager obviously, Sir Alex [Ferguson] was there. Roy should have been there, but you weren’t! Bryan Robson was there and Eric Cantona was, that day that Jude came to the club. We all spoke to him and sold it to him, as well as we could, but he knew what he wanted – ‘X’ amount of minutes in the first team. He was the most mature 17-year-old I’ve ever met in my life. He had it planned out.”
While Solskjaer mentioning the United club legends drew a ‘Wow’ from Ian Wright, Roy Keane took issue with it.
Roy Keane on United’s Jude Bellingham approach
Roy Keane was incredulous when he heard of the sort of approach Manchester United made for Jude Bellingham, when they were trying to secure his signature.
“But do you think it is a bit much for a player to come to a club, and have four or five people there?” the former United captain asked. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said it was ‘a coincidence’ that Eric Cantona was there with Alex Ferguson, on the same day as Bryan Robson.
“Bellingham wasn’t going to sign for Man United because he met Cantona and Bryan Robson,” Keane insisted. “I don’t know… what difference would it make? If I was going to sign for Man United, meeting Bobby Charlton and these people wouldn’t have made a difference to my decision-making to join the club. Of course you were there [Ole]. You’re the manager, Jesus yeah, you’re going to meet him.
“Imagine if you signed him and someone asked ‘Why did you sign?’ ‘Because I met Bryan Robson and Eric Cantona today.” F***ing hell, okay!”
Ian Wright joked, “If I could assemble the Avengers like that, I definitely would have!”
As it all played out, Jude Bellingham signed for Dortmund for £25 million, in the summer of 2020. He would play three seasons in the Bundesliga before, last summer, joining Real Madrid for €103 million.
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