What marks did Mourinho, Solskjaer and Tenhager leave at Old Trafford?

On August 28, 2025, Besiktas announced that he would part ways with coach Ole Guinard Solskjaer after failing in the European Union play-off. The next day, Fenerbahce lost to Benfica in the Champions League playoffs and also bid farewell to Jose Mourinho. Two days later, Leverkusen fired Eric Tenhager – the Dutchman led the team to only three official games.

In just 7 days, three former Manchester United coaches were dismissed one after another. At the same time, the current coach Ruben Amorin's position as coach has also fallen into turmoil, and there are constant speculations from the outside world.

coaching Manchester United means becoming one of the most scrutinized footballers in the world. In the 12 years since Sir Ferguson hung up his boots, the club has experienced six official coaches and an interim appointment, but has never been able to achieve long-term stability in this most challenging position in the football world.

However, when looking back on the past and combining Amorin's recent dilemma, should we re-examine Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Tenhager's years at Old Trafford from a new perspective?

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Jose Mourinho: What happened between May 2016 and December 2018?

Mourinho's arrival is a response to his former Luis van Gaal's coaching style. The Portuguese coach suffered consecutive setbacks after Real Madrid and Chelsea entered the palace for the second time, but people still believe that he has both tactical wisdom and strong aura, which is enough to be competent for Manchester United's coaching position.

In 2016, Mourinho was regarded as the closest figure to Ferguson in today's football world. Although he only won one championship in La Liga in three years, he is still one of the few coaches who can compete with Guardiola on a tactical level. Therefore, the 2016-2017 season was packaged as a peak showdown: the Red Devils and Mourinho were in the red corner, and Manchester City and Guardiola were in the blue corner. People look forward to the two famous coaches playing a series of championship battles for many years to come.

Why was sacked?

Mourinho's first season was a success, leading the team to win the Community Shield, League Cup and Europa League. However, he has always been unable to narrow the gap with Manchester City under Guardiola, and the strange "cold war" with Pogba runs throughout his term. Over time, Mourinho's dissatisfaction with the club has become increasingly revealed. He talked more and more about his past glory rather than how to add glory to Old Trafford.

The most appropriate metaphor for his coaching career was perhaps because he chose to stay in the luxury suite at the Lowry Hotel rather than buying a residence in Manchester. When asked about the reason, Mourinho admitted: "I have to clean myself in a house alone, but I don't want to; I have to iron it myself, but I don't want to; I have to cook by myself, so I can only fry eggs and sausages - this is the only thing I can do."

The greatest coach in football history was unwilling to clean up the mess for himself.

What if you leave Manchester United?

Mourinho is in charge of each team and often goes through three stages:

At first it was the honeymoon period of "We Against the World", and he formed an alliance with players and fans; then it was the critical period of "We are a special group of people", and the core team and loyal fans overcome difficulties; finally entered the final chapter of "Mourinho Against the World", he publicly criticized the referee, questioned the attitude of the injured, and constantly asked for transfer support.

Tottenham, Rome, and Fenerbahce are now hard to escape this fate. Although his tenure in Rome is the most dramatic, he is also the most fruitful - he led the team to win the 2022 European League Championship and entered the 2023 European League final.

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Ole Guinard Solskjaer: What happened at Manchester United from December 2018 to November 2021?

The arrival of Solskjaer injected long-lost warmth into Old Trafford, ending the gloomy atmosphere of Mourinho in the end. At first he took office as the interim coach, he won six games in seven games, bringing Pogba, Martial and others back to life.

The club's senior management originally planned to appoint a sports director and new coach at the end of the 2018-2019 season, but the emotional connection between Solskjaer and the players and fans is so deep that he becomes the undisputed successor. In March 2019, the team reversed Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and became a legend in modern football. A few weeks later, he officially became a regular. He is the first former player to take charge of Manchester United since Wilf McQuinis in 1969. People look forward to his personal experience of the club's glory days to recreate the winning path of the Ferguson era.

He almost did: he was the first coach after Ferguson to lead the team to the Champions League zone for two consecutive years, and entered the semi-finals of the League Cup and FA Cup.

Why was sacked?

Losing a penalty to Villarreal in the 2021 Europa League final, becoming a turning point in Solskjaer's term. The defeat was said to have exhausted him and prompted him to seek reinforcement before the 2021-2022 season. Sancho and Varane joined one after another, and signing back to Ronaldo by buzzer is regarded as the "final stroke" to change the situation. However, the return of this legend magnifies the team's already-existing tactical problems, and the coaching staff is unable to resolve them.

"'How do we defend?' This is the first reaction of assistant coach Kieran McKenna." Solskjaer recalled the introduction of Ronaldo to the Norwegian media. "Maybe for all of us, this was a wrong choice. But at that time, we thought that was the right decision."

Varane was injured and lacked a key schedule. The team's condition took a sharp turn. Finally, after losing to Watford 1-4, Solskjaer was dismissed.

What if you leave Manchester United?

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was silent for more than three years until he took over Besiktas in January 2025. He led the team to finish the season in fourth place, but was fired again at the end of the month.

History may treat Solskjaer's Manchester United years well. More and more fans and commentators—including me—are beginning to value his efforts to improve the club’s standards, rather than focusing only on his failure to break through the monopoly of Liverpool and Manchester City..

"Managing players is my passion." The Norwegian once told Sky Sports in April 2021, "Of course I have other abilities, but you have to see clearly what others can bring, and you can't do it. For me, whether it is motivation or spur, praise or blame, to let every player play the best, this is an art and a science."

If Manchester United could provide him with a more talented lineup back then, would Solskjaer achieve more?

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Eric Tenhager: What happened at Manchester United from May 2022 to October 2024?

The story of the latest head coach may not need to be repeated. As Tenghager repeatedly emphasized in the summer of 2024, he won two trophies for Manchester United in his two-year term. The 2023 League Cup ended the club's embarrassment of not having a championship in six years, and Manchester City, who defeated Guardiola in the 2024 FA Cup, made him lucky to survive after his poor record of eighth in the league.

Why was sacked?

Tenhager does bring honor to a club that defines itself by trophy. But he also led £86 million to sign a winger with a worrying right foot ability, experienced the shame of a 0-7 defeat to Liverpool, and never clearly explained his tactical requirements for the players.

When he first arrived in Manchester United, everyone talked about his glory in leading Ajax in the 2018-2019 season - the youth team that eliminated Real Madrid and Juventus and entered the Champions League semi-finals. However, looking back, we should probably look at a coach more rigorously: he once held a 3-0 overall advantage in the semi-finals, but was reversed by Tottenham, which lacked Kane.

Although he had trophy and third in the league in his first season, his away record had already shown concerns, and his tactical weaknesses gradually spread, eventually eroding all his ideas for the future.

What if you leave Manchester United?

coached Leverkusen for two months and only won one win, one draw and one loss. His quick dismissal was not resolved, and his agency issued a statement saying that he had never felt the club's full support.

Leverkusen sports director Simon Rollfies explained that the club determined that "it is no longer feasible to build a successful new team with the existing structure."

This drama is expected to continue to ferment in the next few weeks.

——Why does the shadow of Ferguson linger?

When David Moyes was fired in April 2014, public opinion generally believed that he was not capable enough and Manchester United needed a coach with more experience in a wealthy family. Van Gaal was still fired after winning the FA Cup in 2016, and people criticized him as "Yesterday's Yellow Flower".

However, when one famous coach after another failed at Old Trafford, we should ask: It’s not that they are not good enough, but that Ferguson’s legend is too majestic - that any successor is destined to be in the interweaving of light and shadow, and to make a difficult step.

But Tenghager is considered a bad communicator. In contrast, Amorin showed a clearer and more coherent expression when he elaborated on his tactical philosophy and future vision.

Newton's third law points out that every force has a reaction force of equal magnitude and opposite directions. Manchester United's more than ten years of football turmoil originated to some extent from a "reaction-style" coach selection logic - it seems reasonable at the moment, but in fact it exposes the coach to systemic risks. In this cycle, Amorin had already seen the fire at his first press conference. If he leaves Old Trafford one day, according to this inertia, his successor is likely to be a coach with Premier League experience. He is used to the four-guard system, but he does not reject flexible changes in formations.

If these three newly dismissed coaches are given more time, can they achieve better results at Manchester United? Perhaps so. However, a deeper and more worrying crux of the club is that both the Glazer family and the Ineos Group today have repeatedly tried to make the head coach play a Ferguson-like all-round role, but have never provided the position with the organizational structure and continuous and stable resource support.

Perhaps it can be said that the successive appearances of these three coaches at Manchester United were to make up for the shortcomings of their predecessors - Mourinho replaced Van Gaal and replaced the rigid system with an iron fist; Solskjaer succeeded Mourinho, repairing the cracks in the locker room with warmth and inheritance; Tenhager was hoped to reshape order with tactical discipline after Solskjaer was warm and lacked discipline. However, Manchester United club has never been able to effectively make up for its weaknesses and amplify its advantages during its coach's tenure.

coaching Manchester United is the most difficult challenge in world football. Mourinho, Solskjaer and Tenhag all faced the challenge in different ways, and each achieved different levels of success.