United are floundering, there are no signs of forward progress. The simple fact is that this is one of the biggest jobs in club football, and he's had it for nearly three seasons. If he was up to the task of getting his players to perform to their ability (and wages), making the whole greater than the sum of its parts and getting tangible results, we wouldn't need to be consistently reminded of how much he loves the club. The fact that so many felt the need to inject terms like "club legend" and "United DNA" when discussing him tells you a lot about his performance in the job he was paid nearly $10m a year to do: managing the club. I'm not sure there's much to say about Solskjaer he's a nice fellow, smiles a lot, seemed to be genuinely liked as a person by his players.
The 4-1 humiliation away to Claudio Ranieri's Watford - coupled with previous months of futility - eventually cost Ole Gunnar Solskjaer his job at Manchester United. With Solskjaer gone, Man United have a plan (of sorts). Jump to: Man United's plan | Inter are for real | Xavi, Barca win | Liverpool thump Arsenal | Messi scores in Ligue 1 | Palmer stars for Man City | Real Madrid perform | Spurs, Conte get lucky | Milan stunned | Dortmund close gap | Chelsea excel | Juve go "old school" | Atletico win ugly |. It's Monday, and Gab Marcotti reacts to the biggest moments in the world of football. ESPN+ viewers' guide: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, FA Cup, more There were lessons learned for Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Chelsea, and Lionel Messi finally scored his first goal in Ligue 1 for Paris Saint-Germain.
The weekend in European soccer was full of talking points as per usual: Manchester United's latest defeat led to the long-awaited exit of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Xavi's official debut as Barcelona manager was a winning one, and Liverpool shrugged off a red-hot Arsenal team with ease at Anfield.