Why FA Cup win can make fans fall deeply in love with Manchester United once again
By Ollie Slack
An FA Cup adventure under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could be the ideal potion to make Manchester United fans fall back in love with their club. Whether it would be the perfect goodbye or perfect start for the Norwegian remains to be seen. But first, standing in their way are the good old rivals Arsenal.
What an occasion it promises to be. United’s cup competition fixtures against The Gunners have always provided some classics over the years. Who could forget the famous 1999 semi-final victory? Ryan Giggs showed more of his chest hair to the Arsenal players than he did the ball, keeping it under tight control as he danced forward and smashed it past David Seaman the roof of the net.
But perhaps a more appropriate flashback, in alignment with how Solskjaer has got his Manchester United side playing, was the 3-1 counter-attacking masterclass in the 2008/09 Champions League semi-final. Pace, skill, control, power and finesse, a display from The Red Devils that had it all.
Something only now, almost six years on from the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson, are we starting to see return to the blades of grass at Old Trafford.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s main objective when he was asked to become the interim manager of the football club would have been to secure Champions League football. Get us in the top four!
However, the job at hand was about so much more than that. He was arriving at the club he adored, but one currently that had a rain cloud hovering over it. The fans and players were disillusioned. It required more than just, “get us in the top four!”
Solskjaer needed to make the environment a happy one, the players needed to be set free and the fans wanted some trademark rubberstamped Manchester United football. And of course, when you start winning on the pitch, everything off it seems so much better. But there is now a growing belief that Manchester United can play dominate teams like they used to.
Proven in the display against another London side in Spurs. The United team walked out onto the Wembley turf that day thinking, ‘how can we impose ourselves on them?’, contrary to how some may have felt under the restraints of recent managers.
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Just because Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino want to play a certain way and have been relatively successful with it, doesn’t mean the whole world has to follow suit.
Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson worked tirelessly over the decades to build Manchester United up as the greatest football club in the world. Their brand was not defined by how many pot noodle or mattress deals they could sell, but their traditions on the pitch. Fast flowing attacking football, giving youth a chance, entertainment and winning.
There is nothing like winning a trophy. And if the Norwegian can secure Manchester United their 13th FA Cup title at Wembley this year, fans will love him even more so than they currently do. Win the FA Cup playing the way they are now, the United way, with pace, skill and youth, fans will be devoted to the club once again.
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And then what happens? Like I said in the introduction, an FA Cup win for Solskjaer could be the best way to say goodbye. Or it could lay down a marker as to how the club means to go on. I would have thought though, by that point, the love potion may be a bit too strong to snap out of.