Former Manchester United manager and striker Ole Gunner Solskjaer wanted some top players during his time at Old Trafford, when they were still young in their careers
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wanted to sign three of world football’s megastars when he was in charge of Manchester United, when they were still available for bargain prices. The Norwegian coach was keen to land Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice before they had fully made their names.
Solskjaer urged United’s hierarchy to move quickly, according to The Mail. It was not to be for the Red Devils as they instead spent £39million for Donny van de Beek in 2020, and £73m for Jadon Sancho and £13m for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021.
Initially taking over as interim boss, Solskjaer was in charge of United from 2018 until 2021. At that time, Haaland was racking up goals at Red Bull Salzburg, Bellingham was breaking out at Birmingham City and Rice cemented himself as a key player at West Ham.
Solskjaer saw Haaland and Bellingham both join Borussia Dortmund in 2020 and have since joined Manchester City and Real Madrid, respectively.
United’s signings failed to pan out. Van de Beek could not break into the Red Devils’ side and spent time on loan before making his exit, while Jadon Sancho is currently on loan at Aston Villa, having been cast aside by Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim.
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Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, saw his contract ended early via mutual consent. The Portuguese icon failed to gel with Ten Hag, and they quickly parted ways.
Solskjaer has previously spoken about how he encouraged United to sign Haaland in the summer of 2018, months before he replaced Jose Mourinho as boss. The former forward repeated the advice when in the dugout as Haaland had a release clause and little competition present for his signature.
Speaking to the Stick To Football podcast, Solskjaer said: “Erling was with me at Molde for two seasons, more or less. The summer before I came, I rang the club and said: ‘You have to sign this boy, he is going to be absolutely top class.’ That was in June or July and they said they didn’t have enough reports.
“By the time I came in as caretaker, we [Molde] had sold him to Salzburg. I tell the club straight away: ‘Buy him.’ He had a release clause. No-one else then would have paid that money. It was 20m euros and it would have been a bargain. It was the club’s decision to not go for him then.
“We didn’t go for him until he started scoring for Salzburg but then Dortmund, Juventus, everyone was there.”
Solskjaer did manage to at least have a conversation with Bellingham, but the England star’s demands were more easily met elsewhere. “We had Jude in the building,” said Solskjaer.
“We sold the club to him as best we could but he wanted X amount of minutes. He is the most mature 17-year-old I ever met in my life.”
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Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
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