A GUEST POST!
Nothing! I hear you shout. What is your point? I hear you plead with outstretched arms. Bear with and allow me to add further context to this question.
What do Manchester United Football Club and The United States of America have in common? Ok, yes Man United are American owned but that’s not the point being emphasized here.
The point instead, is about a pair of extremely well-resourced individuals at the helm of two of the most powerful entities in the world.
The Commander-in-chief rolled in and out of Glasgow COP26 amongst a 400 strong motorcade consisting of an impressive array of four-by-fours, Cadillacs, buses, helicopters, and heck even an ambulance in tow.
But-for the president seemingly falling asleep during the actual conference, it was by in large a routinely successful PR exercise from the United States.
At Man United, Solskjaer can also count on the likes of Maguire, Varane, Pogba, Ronaldo, Fernandes and Cavani as part of his very own impressive motorcade.
Count on them as an exhibition of expensively assembled stars- he can. Count on them to re-stablish the Red Devil’s primacy in English football let alone on the global stage- well that’s another story.
Despite a near 10-year period without the English crown, the club impressively retains the soft power harnessed from being highly successful on the pitch when commercialised football really took off in the 90s.
A first mover’s advantage perhaps. Think Coca Cola or maybe even Kleenex.
Like most industries however, new entrants to the market bring about a sort of innovation that often catches the incumbent off-guard, ushering in a painful and prolonged limbo era, or sometimes even worse, a gradual and sure decline.
The Sheikh at Man City strategically wielded the axe until he landed the most in-vogue managerial candidate of the modern age, Pep Guardiola.
In Ole, Man Utd Vice Chairman Ed Woodward instead settled on an icon from the club’s 1999 treble heyday, based as much on hope as on strategy.
Parallels could easily be drawn with the United States’ inauguration of Biden, a seemingly safe bet and a relic from the bygone Obama ‘hope’ era.
So, what else do Ole and Joe have in common. Well, both men dethroned outspoken predecessors in Trump and Mourinho, The Donald and The Special one: easily potential subjects of another blog.
Without a doubt, the circumstances surrounding the appointments of both Solskjaer and Biden are one of compromise more than anything.
If you were to ask the average man/woman in the street on their opinion on Trump the answer would probably have been along the lines of “He says mean things and thinks too highly of himself”, and Mourinho: “He says mean things and thinks too highly of himself”. “Give me anyone but them” they could just have easily said.
Let’s not get started on Van Gaal and Bush, oddly another potentially suitable coupling for a blog post.
So what next for the two superpowers spearheaded by their two concession candidates? I don’t know. We could all have a go at proposing alternative candidates, but that wasn’t the point of this blog.
This therefore wasn’t an appraisal of Ole and Joe’s performances to date. Punditry is way too overrated. It’s much simpler to understand that what goes up must come down.
This instead was a mere work-out, a literary exercise within the frame of political and sporting life, an exhibition if you like. Just like Ole and Joe’s motorcades.
‘In life as in football…’, as American Businessman Arnold H Glasow purportedly once said, although I am not sure whether he may have been referring to ‘Soccer’ or that other sport.
Anyway…here’s to Life, Literacy and Football.
