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Sir Alex Ferguson was famous for his man management. He knew when his softer side could come out to inspire the loyalty in his players and his fiery side when his players were not meeting his level of expectation. That fiery side would come to be known as the hairdryer treatment. In really any match, regardless of the scoreline, the halftime talk from a manager is very important. During the golden years of Manchester United’s Premier League dominance, Sir Alex’s halftime talks were notorious. When United were a goal down at halftime or even winning the match, players would experience the wrath of the mercurial Scotsman on many occasions.
If players were not performing to his likeing, Ferguson would absolutely ream them in the dressing room. In many instances, it worked. Under Ferguson and hairdryer treatment, the club won 13 Premier League Titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups and two Champions League titles.
Sir Alex chose not to use the hairdryer treatment with specific players however. Players like, Eric Cantona and Cristiano Ronaldo were all spared the diatribes.
But there was a reason for that.
Cantona and Ronaldo didn’t respond well to this kind of treatment. Cantona had apparently arrived at the club with a lot of baggage, and Sir Alex decided that his need for support and attention was better for the frenchman to thrive at Old Trafford. Even after his kicking of a fan at Crystal Palace, Cantona was backed by Ferguson.
Ronaldo came from Sporting C.P in the Primeira Liga, and he needed to be toughened up. Ronaldo struggled in his first two years in Manchester but Ferguson tended to lay off of him because he knew that the Portuguese superstar would eventually come good. The lot of his players responded well to his treatment nonetheless. Players like Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Nemanja Vidic all benefited greatly from the tough love by Ferguson. But after the decorated manager left, new managers with different styles of man management took over.
Jose Mourinho is another manager that has been known to use the hairdryer treatment to get the best out of his players at United. During his Manchester United tenure though, it offered mixed results. In a number of points during his reign, it looked as though Jose Mourinho lost the dressing room. Mourinho wasn’t shy in criticising his players to any degree, especially to the media. The current Manchester United squad did not appreciate their constant criticism, but to be fair to the manager, the players were underperforming not just because of his tactics.
Sir Alex Ferguson tended to not publicly criticise his players, Jose Mourinho did frequently. That’s not to say that Sir Alex’s methods would be automatically accepted with aplomb nowadays. Whether the squad likes it or not, the hair dryer could be coming back.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer looks like a very happy man at the moment, and who can blame him? The matchdays where the camera focuses in on the manager walking into the football ground is completely different to the Jose Mourinho era. Smiles all around, from Solskjaer to the players. But what is going to happen when the players hit a bad run of form or when they underperform to the manager’s expectations?
Solskjaer may seem like a very nice man, but it turns out he can be a disciplinarian too.
"Maybe I should get the hairdryer out of my pocket because I've got a hairdryer. When the hair needs lifting I use it on myself but I'm also not afraid of laying down the law...When your kids disappoint you, you tell them off, you don't give them some chocolate do you. You treat players similar to how you treat your kids really.”
So far, Solskjaer’s tenure as the Manchester United manager has been fairly easy, with both games in charge coming against Cardiff and Huddersfield. His first big test comes against Tottenham away on January 13th. Regardless of big games coming up, Solskjaer doesn’t seem to afraid to discipline his players like Sir Alex Ferguson did during his tenure.
"I'm not sure what input he had [in me coming here] but when I got the call I texted the boss [Sir Alex] and I'm going to enjoy a nice cup of tea back at his house and discuss a few ideas."
With some ideas from the legend himself, could Solskjaer be the man to make Old Trafford a fortress again? He's only two matches into his caretaker manager role, so it would be a little much to look into the improvement of the squads performances just yet. Still, there have been many points during the past few few years where the MAnchester United squad needed the hairdryer treatment. That is, if its used in the right moments.
