Neil Warnock’s sharp tongue spells out daunting summer ahead for Manchester United

OLD TRAFFORD, MANCHESTER — Ole Gunnar Solskjaer headed off for a major summer rebuilding job as Manchester United manager with the words of opposite number Neil Warnock ringing in his ears and underlining the scale of the task facing him.

The Cardiff boss, having enjoyed a 2-0 victory in what he concedes will be his last game as a Premier League manager, initially declined the opportunity to analyse United’s problems.

But, on the day that the league table demonstrated just how far the former giants of the English game have fallen behind Manchester City and Liverpool, Warnock had a stark warning for United’s increasingly disillusioned supporters.

‘Never seen anything like it’

“There’s a hard job and it’s not going to be an easy situation for Man United, everybody knows that,” said Warnock.

“Possibly the start they had fudged a lot of issues and it will take more than two or three transfer windows to turn the club around.

“Every club has a period like this and you just have to work through it and have a plan in place and I’m sure that’s what they’ll do because it’s a massive club.

“And the fans are going to have to bite their tongues a bit for a few years because the other two teams at the top have been phenomenal, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Eight points from nine games

Phenomenal, to the extent that United have finished the campaign 32 points behind the champions on a run of eight points from their last available 27 – relegation form by any estimate.

It marks a remarkable downturn in the five months since Solskjaer marked his first game in charge as caretaker manager with a 5-1 win at Cardiff to start a sequence of eight straight wins – the best beginning to a managerial reign in United history.

And Solskjaer, not for the first time in recent weeks, pulled no punches in analysing the state of his club after the latest debacle and a first home loss to the Welsh club in 65 years.

“Definitely, I’ve had loads of conversations and they’ve been up front and honest,” said Solskjaer when asked if the club’s hierarchy and owners were aware of United’s perilous state.

“We know where we are, where we are at and it’s too far from where we want to be. The end of the season just makes it clearer.

“We’ve been poor, we’ve hit a brick wall towards end of the season and that’s very disappointing.

“The big plus is the season’s over, we can draw a big line under it and look forward because we know we are too far behind where we want to be – 98 and 97 points is exceptional, we’re five or six behind third, fourth, fifth and that’s realistically who we need to be challenging next year. It’s not a shock.”

Catastrophic loss of form

United had been challenging for third place as recently as the March international break only for the catastrophic loss of form, that directly followed Solskjaer’s appointment on a permanent basis, to cost them – and that despite the indifferent showings of their rivals for a top-four finish.

If those United supporters, many of whom booed off their team at the end of both halves and most of whom left before the post-match lap of “honour,” needed proof of just how far United have fallen, it came over the campaign’s final week.

A poor draw at last-placed Huddersfield has been followed by an emphatic defeat to Cardiff, who took a 22nd minute lead when Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was fouled by Diogo Dalot and converted the penalty himself.

Mendez-Laing – who had two career Premier League goals before yesterday – doubled the lead with a far-post finish from Josh Murphy’s cross after yet more poor United defending.

At least 17-year-old Mason Greenwood, United’s youngest debutant of the Premier League era, enjoyed an impressive first outing – the only United positive on the day. But Solskjaer still had one more dose of reality for his fans.

“Of course we’re used to challenging for the Premier League and that’s not going to be sorted quickly,” he said.

“We’re not going to catch how many points, 32? We have to challenge for the top four and a trophy. Last time we were in the Europa League with loads of youngsters we won it and the League Cup we have to start the season with the aim to win.”