Ole Gunnar Solskjaer signalled more than a year ago that, despite being in charge of Molde, United was his dream job.

“It’s a dream, of course,” he said in November 2017 to United.no (the Manchester United supporters’ club Scandinavia). “You never know what path your career may take. If I do well with Molde for, let’s say five years, then an opportunity may suddenly unfold at some point. That’s a dream I have to be allowed to have, even though it seems quite distant right now.”

Of the reception he received from United fans when taking charge of Cardiff City in January 2014 at Old Trafford. “It wasn’t easy to stand there in the dugout as a Cardiff manager when the United fans cheered for me for almost the whole game. But it was like coming home. Old Trafford is home.”