Mike Phelan in frame to assist caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United
Sir Alex Ferguson’s long-term former assistant Mike Phelan is set to make a dramatic return to Manchester United alongside caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to steer the club until the end of the season.
The 56 year old was told by David Moyes that there was no room for him at United after Ferguson retired in the summer of 2013 and since then has managed briefly at Norwich City and Hull City.
The decision to allow him to leave was viewed in retrospect as a mistake with even Ferguson saying subsequently that the club were wrong to let him go. Phelan played for United under Ferguson between 1989 and 1994 and worked for the club as a coach in different guises for 14 years.
As revealed by Telegraph Sport, Solskjaer is a leading candidate at Manchester United to succeed Jose Mourinho as manager on a temporary basis until the end of the season.
The former United striker is currently manager of Molde in Norway, where he is in his second spell in charge and were he to come back to United then his first game in charge would be against former club Cardiff City.
Solskjaer, 45, had a lacklustre eight months at Cardiff in 2014 where he was unsuccessful in his attempts to save the club from relegation to the Championship and was sacked in September.
Solskjaer signed a new contract this month at Molde until December 2021 having finished in second place for the second successive year this season.
It is unclear what that will mean for his chances of being appointed at United given that the club will be reviewing the position in the summer. The season in Norway runs from March to November and Molde’s second place means they are in the Europa League qualifiers next August.
Solskjaer’s place in United’s folklore is well-established. He was a hugely popular goalscorer who got the last-minute winner in the 1999 Champions League final.
He was the first candidate to take David Beckham’s right wing position after the English midfielder left in 2003 but a knee injury picked up late in September of that year plagued Solskjaer, and he never fully recovered.
United play Cardiff away in the late kick-off on Saturday.