Happy Ole Gunnar Solskajer is hired today Manchester United fans. The club announced today the obvious, correct and ultimately inevitable decision, and as you would expect, the Norwegian made some phone calls shortly after he was informed that the gig was now his full time.
One of the first calls he made was to club patriarch Sir Alex Ferguson. Asked if he’d already spoken to Sir Alex, Solskjaer confirmed (h/t Metro): “Yeah, I have. I’m not going to discuss what we spoke about, but of course it’s one of the first phone calls you make when things more or less were decided.”
In other, non-Solskjaer news, there’s another new twist in the Ander Herrera contract and transfer saga. First we learned that Paris Saint-Germain was after the Spaniard. Then we learned Arsenal was keen on the midfielder. Now we learned that Barcelona are also interested in United’s 2016-17 Player of the Year.
United have until only June 30 to work on signing Herrera to a new contract, as his current deal is set to expire at the end of the month.
-Elsewhere, United’s seemingly never ending quest to land a new and better central defender continues, with talk of Samuel Umtiti being the next name on the list.
And according to Goal, Barcelona are willing to take calls and hear offers for him.
And finally, United “are planning to focus on emerging youngsters and players in their mid-twenties in future transfer windows,” says ESPN.
Here below are the FYIs for the league fixture:
Kick-off: Saturday March 30, Old Trafford 3pm local
United Starting XI Prediction: go to this link
United injury report: go to this link
Odds via Odds Checker: United 5/11, Draw 39/10, Crystal Palace 7/1
Google Result Probability: Manchester United win 67%, Draw 20%, Watford win 13%
Prediction: United 2, Watford 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.