1st September 2025
September 1 – The Special One and The Baby-Faced Assassin, aka José Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjær, now have two things in common. Firstly, both have been fired from Manchester United, and now they have both been relieved of their jobs in the Turkish capital, Istanbul, by Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş, respectively.
Despite being greeted by thousands of supporters at the airport when he arrived last year, the ‘Special One’ is leaving without any signs of success after barely a season in charge of one of Turkey’s most prestigious clubs. The Portuguese legend spent his entire time in Turkey raging against the system but struggled to come to grips with the intricacies of football in this passionate hotbed.
Reports are linking him to a return to the Premier League with one of the currently lower ranked teams and with West Ham favourites to make him an offer. Mourinho said before his sacking that perhaps a return to the Premier League and a team not competing in European football would be his best move.
On the European side of Istanbul, Solskjaer’s Beşiktaş adventure came to an equally predictable conclusion.
Solksjaer’s exit was hastened by the failure to beat Lausanne in the Conference League qualifiers. This result compounded Besiktas’ failure in the Europa League qualifiers, where they lost to Shakhtar Donetsk. Ultimately no European football meant no Solksjaer.
The Norwegian, whose United reign was essentially three years of “trust the process” without any discernible process, has again proven that vibes and good intentions only get you so far in professional football.
The irony is that both managers sought Turkish football to get away from the microscope. However, when you’re managing two of Turkey’s most successful teams, the spotlight is more intense than almost anywhere in the world.
The Süper Lig is a competition where tactical flexibility matters, where passionate fans demand results, and where patience is about as common as a successful VAR decision. Instead of respite, they found themselves in situations eerily reminiscent of their Manchester nightmares.
Perhaps there’s something poetic about two men who couldn’t quite crack the Old Trafford code finding themselves simultaneously unemployed on opposite sides of the Bosphorus. Turkish football, it seems, doesn’t care about your previous Premier League credentials, your tactical philosophy, or your ability to look pensively into the middle distance during press conferences.
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