Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admits Man United’s plans for next season are ‘up in the air’

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admits Man United’s plans for next season are ‘up in the air’ with pre-season squeezed and transfer strategy hinging on whether they qualify for the Champions League

• Three-month break because of Covid-19 will make planning more difficult
• With Europa League finals to come, United face prospect of tight pre-season
• They are far from assured a place in next season’s Champions League
• And this is making transfer strategy tricky for manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
• United resume their push for the top four against Southampton on Monday 

By Chris Wheeler for MailOnline

Published: 11:14 BST, 11 July 2020 | Updated: 11:18 BST, 11 July 2020

Manchester United’s plans for next season and transfer strategy are ‘up in the air’ due to the uncertainty over how the current campaign will finish, admits Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

United are pushing for Champions League qualification, a place in the FA Cup final and are also through to the latter stages of the Europa League in a season that has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Europa League will now be played as a mini-tournament in Germany with the final on August 21, meaning the gap between this season and next could be a matter of weeks.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has admitted it is difficult to forward plan for the 2020-21 season

United are in excellent form, unbeaten in 17 games after their 3-0 victory over Aston Villa

The unprecedented situation has already put paid to the usual summer tour and pre-season, and Solskjaer admitted that it has made forward planning difficult.

‘There’s quite a lot of planning going on,’ he said. ‘When do we start the league that is obviously determined by how far we go in Europe, you can’t really decide on the training programme.

‘There are so many small decisions, and transfers are out of our hands as well. If the team is going well, what do we need? What don’t we need?

Borussia Dortmund star Jadon Sancho is one potential summer target for Manchester United

‘That’s the way we’re working and you’ve got to plan for different scenarios – uncertainty of dates, how much holiday, what will next season look like? It’s a little bit up in the air.

‘I don’t think it’s like dramatic decisions. I don’t think the club would panic or go crazy with plans that we’ve already talked about for years to come. 

‘You do have to have a long-term plan but short-term some decisions will be easier to make if you get in the Champions League.’

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