Solskjaer warns United will have to wait for next Premier League title

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MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, April 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
admitted on Tuesday that Manchester United will not be capable of competing
for the Premier League title next season in a stark assessment of the current
gulf between his side and Wednesday’s opponents Manchester City.

United take on City at Old Trafford on Wednesday 22 points behind the
reigning champions and 24 adrift of leaders Liverpool, despite coach
Solskjaer initially going a dozen league games unbeaten after succeeding the
sacked Jose Mourinho.

The weekend’s 4-0 hammering at Everton was their third defeat in their five
matches since and the 46-year-old called for patience when asked if he
thought his squad was capable of competing for the title next season.

“I don’t think we’ve got the consistency to do that,” said the former
United striker.

“Over the last 18 games, we’re not far away from them but it’s doing it
over the course of a season.

“We’ve done it for half a season now. Let’s see. You can never say never.”

– ‘Realistic’ –

United were last crowned champions in 2013, and Solskjaer added: “You
cannot expect things to happen overnight and we know that. It will happen
gradually and we have to be realistic enough as a club that we have to take
it step by step.

“That’s not changing 10 players now and bringing 10 players in. It’s
slowly, slowly but surely.

“It has to be the right quality, right personality, the right standards to
get us back to where we want to be.”

Solskjaer has often spoken at length of the need for his players to take
personal pride in playing for one of the world’s biggest club, and following
their recent rotten run of six defeats in eight matches in all competitions
he also said that the pain of falling behind United’s two major local rivals
was acute.

“For me, the motivation is towards something, to win something yourself,”
he said.

“We have to want to overtake them, not because it’s City and Liverpool. But
of course because it’s City and Liverpool, for a supporter as I am, and as a
manager now as well, because they’re so close in the vicinity as well, we
want to be the best.

“We have been the best, and it’s not nice seeing those two at the top,” he
admitted.

Solskjaer’s emotional post-match response at Goodison Park saw him warn
some of his under-performing stars that they will not be at the club long-
term.

“I think now is not the time to make drastic changes, but of course we do
plan ahead… we know who we want to bring with us,” he said.

“There are many of these players who will stay at the club for so many
years and be successful, and I’m going to do everything I can to be
successful and hopefully these players can come out with a response the next
four games.

“But we’re still planning long term, and that’s just natural. That’s the
cycle of a team, that it changes.”