Ole: They Put Me With Keane To Toughen Me Up

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has reflected on a time during his Manchester United career when he started to suffer from a lack of confidence.

“It’s incredible how important confidence is,” he said. “I had very low confidence, I thought too much in periods. They put me on the team with Roy Keane on every training for a month to toughen me up. Roy yelled at me and they wanted me to respond. Finally I got enough and yell back. After training, I asked the coach why I was placed on Keane’s team all the time. ‘We want you to stand up for yourself,’ he said.”

After believing he had worked hard to battle against his lacking confidence, after being told by Ferguson that he would get to play and show off in the next few weeks. With a game coming up against Southampton, Teddy Sheringham, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were all called into Ferguson’s office. He said he would start with Sheringham and Cole in the next game. “Everybody happy with that?”. The other players nodded, stood up and walked out of the office. Solskjaer was sitting. “What’s up son?”. “I am not happy with it. You said you’d give me the chance, you challenged me, now is your chance.” Ferguson looked at him. “Okay, go and get Teddy for me.”

Solskjaer started the next match. He stayed at United for the rest of his career.