Former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is under growing scrutiny with Besiktas and could face the sack this summer. To make things worse, the Red Devils icon could be replaced by a former Liverpool man.
As recently as May 2025, there had been more of a positive feeling around Solskjaer in Turkey. At one point, he even defeated fellow former Man Utd boss Jose Mourinho, winning 1-0 away at Fenerbahce.
That meant, having arrived in January, the Norwegian had won
seven of his first 12 Turkish Super Lig games in charge. By the end of the season, he had led Besiktas to a fourth-place finish, having arrived with the side languishing in sixth. Even so, he could now lose his job.
Solskjaer Under Pressure in Turkey
Could be replaced by Nuri Sahin
The issues have emerged more recently, however. Indeed, Besiktas' Europa League campaign has already started and finished before many teams have even kicked a ball in the 2025/26 season.
The Turkish giants only made it as far as the second preliminary round before being knocked out by Shakhtar Donetsk this week. Having lost the first leg 4-2 in Krakow, Solskjaer's team were then beaten 2-0 at home.
As a result, the players were jeered at the final whistle, and the pressure has since been heaped on the club manager. Just eight months after taking the job, and signing an 18-month deal, it looks as though the former Man United forward could soon be sacked, per The Express.
Adding to the intrigue – in what would certainly rub salt into the wounds for Solskjaer – Fabrizio Romano has reported that former Liverpool man Nuri Sahin is 'top of the list' for Besiktas, should they decide to part ways with their current head coach.
Beyond his playing days (managing 52 caps for the national side), Sahin does have experience coaching in Turkey, having started his managerial career with Antalyaspor in 2021. He led them to a respectable seventh-place finish before then heading to former club Borussia Dortmund in 2023. Initially working as an assistant, he became head coach in the summer of 2024 but was sacked in January 2025 after a run of poor results.
Nuri Sahin Career Stats
Club
Borussia Dortmund
Antalyaspor
Werder Bremen
Feyenoord Rotterdam
Liverpool
Real Madrid
The best years of Sahin's career were spent with the German side, as he played 274 times for Dortmund across multiple spells. He joined Liverpool on loan in 2012 but flopped at Anfield, making just 12 appearances before departing.
He ended his career in his native Turkey at Antalyaspor in 2021, before retiring and immediately taking up his first coaching role with the club. He's not worked since leaving Dortmund early this year.
Stats via Transfermarkt