Manchester United players of the past appear to be lining up to explain where the club has gone badly wrong under Louis van Gaal.
The Dutchman faces a must-win clash with Shrewsbury Town tonight in the FA Cup, amid ongoing uncertainty over his future at Old Trafford.
The club are looking to avoid a third-straight defeat, and the Dutchman is understood be to be close to the sack if they fail to beat their lower league opposition tonight.
Paul Scholes has been one of the most vocal critics of the Van Gaal regime, and he has now been joined in his condemnation of life at Old Trafford by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The Norwegian, speaking to a football podcast in his native country, feels the club are in the midst of a severe identify crisis, and has some very blunt advice for the players and current management on how to arrest their slide.
“We knew it would be tough after the Ferguson era but we have not managed to keep the enthusiasm and the entertaining, attacking football. It is very tough to see Manchester City managing to get Pep Guardiola and sign the biggest stars in Europe. I am a big fan of Guardiola and his philosophy and all his teams. So now United have to pull themselves together. They are heading for a very difficult time.”
The striker won pretty much everything he could while at Old Trafford for 11 years between 1996 and 2007.
He feels that the club were always going to find it hard to replace Alex Ferguson, but no-one could have foreseen the impact his retirement would have on the club. The current Molde manager feels that Ryan Giggs should be given a chance at the job if van Gaal is sacked, which he does not think will happen this summer.
“I think Van Gaal will stay for three years. It is a plan and a process and I am 100% sure he will stay for three years. Ryan Giggs is the most likely former player to manage the club. He has Manchester United DNA in his body.”
The legendary goal-poacher also feels the fact that the club are now battling to try and attain Champions League football is a position well beneath their lofty success of the past.
“We are used to winning. We are used to finishing first. We are used to entertaining the fans. If we finished second it was a disappointing season, now the talk is about finishing fourth. It is undignified for a club like Manchester United.”
