Owen accuses Solskjaer of purposefully weakening Man Utd

Will Ford
Michael Owen

Michael Owen has questioned Manchester United’s links to Bournemouth striker Callum Wilson after allowing Romelu Lukaku to leave in the summer, suggesting that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has “knowingly weakened his team”.

Lukaku was offloaded to Inter for £75 million, with Solskjaer deeming the Belgium international and Alexis Sanchez to be surplus to requirements at Old Trafford.

With United’s well documented issues with scoring goals – again on show in their 0-0 draw with AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League – there has been speculation suggesting Callum Wilson could be drafted in in January.

Owen has suggested they may as well have retained the services of Lukaku and Sanchez.

He told BT Sport: “You have to see progress, you have to see the right type of player being brought in that actually goes down this philosophy.

“If they don’t buy young players, English players, whatever that might be, that’s actually along the lines of what we’re talking, then it really is a worry.

“People like Wilson from Bournemouth are being linked at the moment.

“Now, if a lad in his late 20s, who’s a very good player, in the England squad, no problem with him, very good player.

“But if that’s where you’re going to go back to, then all of a sudden I’m thinking ‘what’s the point in getting rid of Lukaku?’.”

Owen has accused Solskjaer of purposefully weakening the Man Utd squad, in an attempt to take the club back to square one.

The ex-Red Devils striker added: “In many ways Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has knowingly weakened his team.

“Getting rid of people like Lukaku and [Ander] Herrera and [Matteo] Darmian and Sanchez, [Chris] Smalling – he knows that he could improve his team with those players.

“But I think he’s almost taken the view that you’ve got to take a couple of steps backwards to then move forwards.

“[Solskjaer] has done that on purpose thinking ‘right, we’ve just got to rid ourselves of players that, okay they’re probably better than what we’ve got, but are they going to take us to where we want to go?’ – and that answer is no.

“Then you’re almost starting from scratch and I think that’s what Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s done.”