Summary
Managers at Man United face a recurring disconnect with the club hierarchy over transfer decisions.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's wishlist included top players like Rice and Bellingham for a stronger midfield.
United missed out on recruiting Haaland, who has since excelled and made a huge impact at Manchester City.
Hindsight is a weird and wonderful thing in football, especially if you support Manchester United. For the most part, looking back at Old Trafford is tinged with the fanbase’s longing to return to the glory days under Sir Alex Ferguson, when they lifted 13 Premier League titles and two Champions League trophies. But for the managers who have tried and ultimately failed to relive those halcyon days, their list of transfer targets often becomes the stuff of “what ifs.”
Take former interim boss Ralf Rangnick, for example. The now-Austrian manager recommended nine players to the club and has since been right about six major issues troubling the Red Devils. Yet, he wasn’t alone in feeling ignored - several managers before and after him have voiced similar frustrations, highlighting a recurring disconnect between the coaching staff and the decision-makers at the Theatre of Dreams.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also compiled his own transfer wishlist during his stressful tenure from 2018 to 2021. While he reignited flashes of that feel-good factor at the club he loves so dearly, poor recruitment ultimately held him back before he was shown the door. So it begs the question of how United might have looked if they had kept Ole at the wheel a bit longer and rewarded him for back-to-back second and third-place finishes in the Premier League.
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Managers at Man United are rarely prepared for the constant power struggle with the club's hierarchy over transfer decisions, as Solskjaer evidenced.
Goalkeeper & Defence
David de Gea; Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Pau Torres, Harry Maguire, Nathan Ake
It's a tad worrying that the Norwegian, who will forever be etched into the Red Devils' history books for his goalscoring heroics in the 1990s and early 2000s, reportedly had very little interest in putting any goalkeeper or defender in his transfer plans. While Ole was a forward-thinking tactician, even he would surely have seen the need for defensive reinforcements - but perhaps that’s where his 4-2-3-1 double-pivot midfield came into play (more on that later).
So, it’s naturally a little difficult to predict what a contemporary Ole back four would look like. It’s safe to assume he would have stayed loyal to those he often picked back in 2021, with David de Gea keeping his place between the sticks and Harry Maguire remaining the experienced central defender, having been made captain by his former manager, alongside Pau Torres, who was tipped to join the Red Devils by ESPN before ultimately moving to Aston Villa where he helped them qualify for the Europa League last season.
Assuming Luke Shaw would have struggled with fitness issues regardless of managerial changes, Nathan Ake, mooted in the same report, might have been snatched from beneath the noses of their city rivals, while Aaron Wan-Bissaka - now regarded as one of the best right-backs in the Premier League during his time at West Ham again - would have been given plenty more minutes. His unmatched ability to defend one-on-one situations would have allowed Ole’s attacking signings the freedom to stay further up the pitch, acting as something of a system player.
Midfield
Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham, Moises Caicedo
The double pivot at the base of midfield was crucial to Solskjaer's favoured defensive approach, which is why his transfer list included three world-class midfielders: England duo Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham, and £115 million Chelsea signing Moises Caicedo. It now seems almost fantastical for a side that finished 15th in the Premier League to have all three, but the 52-year-old felt he was ahead of the curve four or five years ago.
In a 2023 interview with The Athletic, Solskjaer mentioned he had targeted Rice before Arsenal paid a staggering £100m for him, claiming Rice “wouldn’t have cost what he eventually went for” if United had pursued him. Meanwhile, the United hierarchy overlooked signing Caicedo because the Glazer family wanted an immediate impact player like Casemiro.
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That decision backfired spectacularly, as the Ecuadorian has proven to be one of the best defensive midfielders in the game over the last season or so. At just 23, too, Caicedo’s future looks very bright. Meanwhile, the unlikely arrival of Bellingham would have cost a bomb these days, but Ole claimed he wanted Bellingham before the youngster moved to Borussia Dortmund in 2020 as he boasted about his eye for talent once again, saying:
"We wanted Jude Bellingham badly - he’s a Man United player, but I respect he chose Dortmund. That was probably sensible. But it’s why I respect Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Dan James and Jadon [Sancho]. Young players prepared to come into a team that wasn’t 100 per cent there like it was when I arrived."
Attack
Bruno Fernandes, Erling Haaland, Marcus Rashford
Solskjaer’s attacking tactics often saw his wide forwards cut inside, almost playing as second strikers - not too unlike how current manager Amorim sets up his forward line. With Bellingham’s intended arrival, it’s easy to imagine Bruno Fernandes being pushed to the wing, though he’d likely drift into the middle behind the striker, pulling the strings.
Some of Marcus Rashford’s finest moments came under Ole’s watchful eye, with 26 goal involvements in the 2019/20 season alone. But spats with subsequent managers have seen the boyhood hero’s flame flicker, despite growing up dreaming of being Old Trafford’s main man. Ole brought out the best in him, and there’s no reason to think things wouldn’t have stayed bright had he remained in charge.
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Ole also claimed he urged United to sign his compatriot, Erling Haaland, long before the striker’s RB Salzburg debut. The club’s failure to act still stings United fans. Haaland’s jaw-dropping 29 goals in 27 Austrian appearances, followed by 86 in 89 at Dortmund, earned him a £50m move to Manchester City in 2022. The rest, as they say, is history.
The towering forward has smashed countless records and matched Ronaldo’s milestone, becoming the fastest to 100 goals for a single club in just 105 games, while he's been key to City’s back-to-back Premier League titles and their first-ever Champions League triumph, which completed a historic treble in the 2022/23 campaign. See the full lineup below:
Ole lineup 2025
All statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt (correct as of 02/07/2025)