Ryan Giggs has hailed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for the way his former Manchester United team-mate has transformed the fortunes of the club since taking over from Jose Mourinho.
United are making huge progress under the Norwegian, who was initially drafted in as an interim appointment when Mourinho was sacked in December.
Since then, Solskjaer has realigned United’s season by thrusting them back into contention for a Champions League place and by steering them past Paris Saint-Germain this week in one of the club’s most memorable recent Champions League away days.
“It’s fantastic,” Giggs told Goal in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour Presented by Heineken. “No one could have dreamed of the way the team has performed since he took over.
“The results, there’s only PSG [defeat in the first leg], which can happen, where he has been defeated. So far, he has played Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal and he is unbeaten in all those games. So, what he has done in a short space of time is amazing.”
Solskjaer has made sure that he will be favourite when the time comes for United’s executive vice-chair Ed Woodward to make a decision on Mourinho’s permanent successor. And Giggs believes that, if his fellow 1999 Champions League winner can keep up the momentum, then he would be the ideal candidate for the full-time job.
“At Manchester United you’ve got to have that consistency, week in, week out and it is not easy,” Giggs said.
“He has had a great start to his coaching career at United. If he gets the job, which I hope he does, he’s got to keep it up, which is not easy in the Premier League and in the other trophies.”