Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Discusses Manchester United Transfer Plans

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes Champions League qualification would make Manchester United more competitive in the transfer market.

The Red Devils have failed to qualify for the competition thrice out of the five seasons since Sir Alex Ferguson retired and were ejected at the group stage in 2015 when they were relegated to the Europa League.

Solskjaer has already informed United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward which players he feels need to come and go in the summer as part of his Manchester United Transfer Plans as he hopes to be named full-time manager.

The caretaker boss gave United one of the greatest moments in their history with his 1999 Champions League stoppage-time final winner against Bayern Munich and feels playing at that level would improve some of the current players.

“All the players want to play Champions League,” Solskjaer said when asked whether United needed to play in it to attract quality players.

“To play in the Champions League for Man United is an even bigger thing for many. We cannot just live off our name and tradition and history.

“We want to attract good players who want to improve the players we have here. Paul [Pogba], David [de Gea], Marcus [Rashford], Anthony [Martial] – all these top players we have. They need players to challenge them. Nobody should feel 100 per cent sure to be in the starting 11 the next game.”

United are in the market for a full-back and retain an interest in Internazionale centre-back Milan Skriniar, Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly and Joachim Andersen of Sampdoria.

This article was most recently revised and updated 4 years ago