Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has opened up on his transfer frustrations at Manchester United and has revealed the club ‘couldn’t buy the players’ he had targeted.
Solskjaer has spoken in his first in-depth interview since being sacked at Manchester United in November 2021, with the Norwegian sacked following a run of one win in seven Premier League games.
Solskjaer – who scored 126 goals in 11 seasons for the Red Devils as a player – has now revealed his frustration with an inability to sign his preferred targets at Old Trafford, opening up on how the club missed out on the signing of players including Erling Haaland, Declan Rice and Harry Kane.
“We couldn’t buy the players I mentioned to the club. Erling Haaland, before he made his Salzburg debut. Declan Rice, who wouldn’t have cost what he did in the summer,” Solskjaer told The Athletic.
“We discussed Moises Caicedo, but we felt we needed players ready for there and then. Brighton are very good at letting players come from abroad and find their feet for a year and a half. At United, you don’t have that luxury and that has cost the club loads of players.
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.
“I would have signed Kane every day of the week and my understanding was that he wanted to come. But the club didn’t have the budget with the financial constraints from Covid-19, there was no bottomless pit.”
