The significance of winning this season’s Europa League for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is huge and it could really help the club to move into the right direction of building a young team to be the next future stars at Old Trafford.

The Red Devils are now in the semi-final stage of the competition and  face Sevilla in the semi-finals.  

One of the highlights for United’s season is seeing the rise of Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford who have scored 62 goals between them.

It shows promising signs of Solskjaer’s role in developing players in the United way and replicating the ‘Class of 92’, consisting of David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes – who all ended up becoming future greats at the club.

  • Solskjaer at the heart of bringing youth players into first team

Solskjaer knows it all – from his playing days at the club which is the expectation and values of the club. Finishing third in the Premier League and two games away from securing their second Europa League triumph shows promising signs for an exciting future.

Raising young talent has been in the heart of United’s success under Sir Alex Ferguson and now the former United striker is looking to do the same.

Building the new generation of talented youngsters looks like a safe bet now but it wasn’t the case under David Moyes and Jose Mourinho respectively who didn’t the best out of the rising youngsters at the time. It was Louis van Gaal who gave Rashford and Jesse Lingard first team opportunities and nurtured into the team since. It wasn’t all plain sailing with those squads and rebuilding a new squad was needed.

From Moyes, Van Gaal to Mourinho, there was no signs of progression and were stagnated as a football club on a crossroad. Then the former United man returned as manager to steady the ship and his methods are seeming to work.

Despite an inconsistent first half to the 19/20 season, United have turned their fortunes in the second half of the campaign. The signing of Bruno Fernandes in January has made the team into a different proposition alongside the development of youngsters.

Fernandes has helped to compliment the youngster’s development in the game and the Norwegian international hasn’t just helped to bring the best out of Rashford, Greenwood and Martial, it has also given first-team opportunities both domestically and in Europe to Andreas Pereira, Odion Ighalo, Scott McTominay and Brandon Williams throughout the season.

The future looks bright for the youngsters as they continuously gain experiences and apply their intelligence on the pitch as well as showing signs of consistency and steer progression in their game.

Solskjaer’s approach is clear and evident. Although, he must rebuild this side in order to reach the heights of those glory days when they were always on top.

  • Ferguson leadership qualities

Solskjaer’s is looking to emulate Fergie’s success but it’s an uphill task in itself and we look back at the leadership qualities the Scotsman possessed. This is the qualities and expectations that Solskjaer must exceed at if he was to bring back the domestic and European success back to the club.   

Throughout Fergie’s tenure, he always proved his fabulous leadership qualities who can make the club to do things as well as making people around him to persuade and nudging them to do something that they weren’t capable of doing.

Former United manager was a firm believer on building a firm foundation for that club that meant developing a pipeline of younger players who, when they were signed weren’t very well-known or when they were purchased were in many instances affordable and cheap purchases. Fergie ended up creating and nurturing these players into consistent performers helped the club be consistent throughout and making them one of the best clubs in world football.

Consistently is one word that sums up Fergie who never changed his conviction and philosophy in rebuilding teams and to be ruthless in making crucial decisions for the club which he remained as a disciplinarian. One of his greatest legacies is that he had success for over a quarter of century and was able to build and rebuild four or five truly great teams.

His relentless need for success and having that desire to do better and to make sure that we don’t stand still. We have to put that down to his great management and that had a knock-on effect of creating great financial revenues for the club who remained responsible to turn the fortunes of the club.

Ferguson’s leadership qualities facilitated the years of unprecedented success who created his own culture at the club. It’s a feat that is impossible to replicate as it is all in the hands of Ole to work his magic and embed his own identity for the club.

  • Importance of winning Europa

As all United fans know that it took Fergie four years to win his first major trophy at the club that marked major dominance in English football.

For Ole to win the Europa League in his first full season as manager, it’s a big step in the right direction and an opportunity for players to win some silverware, bringing a feel-good factor around the club.

Having the chance to build a platform for further success but it can be done only if the club get the balance right of player recruitment as well as nurturing youth talent into future superstars that Ferguson inherited.

It’s the same case with Arsenal who appointed former club captain Mikel Arteta as their new head coach and his first job in management after being Pep Guardiola’s assistant for three years. In a short space, he changed the culture of the team and built his own identity which has brought FA Cup glory at the end of a long campaign.

Therefore, United and Solskjaer must act fast to keep up to pace with other rivals like Arsenal and Chelsea’s Frank Lampard who are in a similar pace that are looking to improve their sides and go better next season. Those upcoming managers like Ole want to dominant the English game with their respective sides and have a successful managerial career – like they had in their playing days.

This will help the rising stars not just be superstars but become future managers in the game too and build their own legacies.

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