'It Wouldn't Be the End of the Journey': Solskjær Looks Beyond Top-Four Finish

 Ole Gunnar Solskjær has praised Bruno Fernandes for the impact he has made since joining Manchester United in January. Photograph: Peter Powell/NMC Pool/PA Wire/PA
Ole Gunnar Solskjær has praised Bruno Fernandes for the impact he has made since joining Manchester United in January. Photograph: Peter Powell/NMC Pool/PA Wire/PA
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'It Wouldn't Be the End of the Journey': Solskjær Looks Beyond Top-Four Finish

 Ole Gunnar Solskjær has praised Bruno Fernandes for the impact he has made since joining Manchester United in January. Photograph: Peter Powell/NMC Pool/PA Wire/PA
Ole Gunnar Solskjær has praised Bruno Fernandes for the impact he has made since joining Manchester United in January. Photograph: Peter Powell/NMC Pool/PA Wire/PA

The number of times Ole Gunnar Solskjær mentions the journey Manchester United have been on this season you would think he is employed as a travel guide rather than the manager, but though it is tempting to view Sunday’s showdown at Leicester as journey’s end, the Norwegian insists otherwise.

“We’ve not ended up anywhere yet,” Solskjær says of the chance to clinch third place in the Premier League table and Champions League qualification. “If we get a result against Leicester I think people will say we’ve not had a bad journey this season. But whatever happens, it won’t be the end of the journey because we’ve still got some catching up to do on the two teams ahead of us.”

That might be more in the nature of a trek, though there is no doubt Solskjær’s side are taking steps in the right direction. While at the start of the season they appeared to be going round in circles, seemingly destined for mid-table anonymity, they now look the part and would not be flattered by third place.

At least until the last couple of results United could even claim to be the form team among those sides chasing the last two Champions League positions, with Chelsea and Leicester both losing momentum in the final run-in, though Sunday’s game will put that to the test. Win or draw and Solskjær’s season will be judged a success. Lose, and possibly slip out of the top four after only a few days among the elite, and all the haunting questions about the club’s ambition and the manager’s suitability for the job will return.

“If you want to be part of Manchester United you have to get used to pressure in the final match of the season,” Solskjær says with a shrug. “It’s nothing new, it’s what this club has been built on. We have given ourselves a fantastic chance to end the season on a high, and now it’s up to us to take it.”

Solskjær may be inexperienced as a Premier League manager, but he is still far too canny to be lured into describing Sunday’s game as a make-or-break fixture. “It’s not the most important game of the season, it’s just the next game, and you can ask anyone in football, the next game is always the most important,” he says.

“The result won’t define our season because we’ve already had many defining moments this season. Bruno Fernandes coming in made a massive difference, and I think our overall fitness and mental robustness is so much better now than it was last season.”

The emergence of Mason Greenwood as a free-scoring addition to the frontline would also count as one of the positives this season, along with Paul Pogba’s encouraging form after returning from injury. While there are still questions over the defence, especially at centre-back and now goalkeeper, when United attack they do so with a conviction that has been missing for several seasons.

There are goals in the front three, as well as plenty of pace and movement, and Pogba and Fernandes provide drive and imagination in midfield. “We are getting better at going out to attack teams,” Solskjær says. “That’s how Manchester United should play, it’s how we always used to play, and we are now looking much more like the sort of Manchester United team I want to be in charge of.

“We want to play without fear, to take risks and show what we can do. We are not quite there yet, there is still work to do, but we want to go to the next level and this team is capable of it.”

Though Solskjær will not be drawn on the subject, there will doubtless be one or two additions to the squad before next season, by which time it will be clear whether United have recovered their Champions League status or not. With a 5-0 advantage over LASK of Austria and the home leg still to come early next month, United have all but booked themselves a place in the last eight of the Europa League, which represents a feasible but arduous route to the Champions League, though all concerned would vastly prefer to tie up the matter against Brendan Rodgers’ side on Sunday afternoon.

United could finish third or fourth, depending on what Chelsea do in their tricky last match against Wolves, though Leicester know they will probably need to win to ensure their own Champions League qualification, most likely at the expense of Sunday’s opponents.

When United beat Leicester through a Marcus Rashford penalty when the teams met at Old Trafford in September, it was only the third home match of the season and form was fluctuating wildly. After impressing everyone with a cavalier 4-0 defeat of Chelsea on the opening day, absorbing pressure and playing effectively on the counter, United managed to lose their next home game to Crystal Palace, so overcoming Leicester was a step towards solidity.

That process has continued all season, not always entirely smoothly, though Solskjær is right to acknowledge the impact made by the arrival of Fernandes in January. That key signing, coupled with the manager’s willingness to give young players a chance, has put United back on the right track, though Solskjær and his squad will still be glad of a few days’ rest before the Europa fixtures commence.

“It’s been a very strange season but a draining one, despite the long break,” he says. “You are always tired at this stage of the season but we’ve still got enough energy for the last 90 minutes.”

The Guardian Sport



Football Returns to War-torn Sudan as Elite Clubs Go Back Home

A Sudanese protester waves the national flag near the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum. (AFP)
A Sudanese protester waves the national flag near the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum. (AFP)
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Football Returns to War-torn Sudan as Elite Clubs Go Back Home

A Sudanese protester waves the national flag near the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum. (AFP)
A Sudanese protester waves the national flag near the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum. (AFP)

League football has returned to war-torn Sudan for the first time in more than two years with a one-month competition being organized for eight clubs to determine the country’s champions.

Sudan has been in the grip of conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, with more than 150,000 people killed and about 12 million uprooted, creating the largest displacement crisis in the world.

Among them have been the country’s biggest clubs Al Hilal and Al Merrikh, who between them have won all but four of the championships since the league was created in 1965, according to Reuters.

Last season, the pair were invited to play in the league in Mauritania, on the other side of the continent, where they could remain active and moved their club structures to the West African country, where Al Hilal emerged as champions.

But they are both back in Sudan to take part in a tournament to decide which clubs will compete in continental club competition for the 2025/26 season.

Al Hilal were quarter-finalists in this year’s African Champions League despite having to host their home games on neutral territory.

They were also weekend winners against Al Merghani Kassala in the first round of the Sudanese Elite Championship, which is being played at Ad-Damer, some 430km from the capital Khartoum, which has been badly damaged by the civil war.

Matches in the tournament are also being hosted in Atbara, which is 320km north of Khartoum.

There will be seven rounds of fixtures, and Al Merrikh also got off to a winning start over the weekend by beating Ahly Madani 1-0. Their derby against Al Hilal is set for the last day of competition on 22 July.

The other clubs competing are Zamalek, Umm Rawaba, Al Amal Atbara, Hay Al Wadi Nyala and Merrikh Al Abyad, who will all each play each other once.

Sudan’s national team, who will compete in the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco at the end of the year and are also chasing a first-ever World Cup appearance next year, have not played a home match since March 2023.