Former Besiktas manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has offered a frank and colorful account of his short but “fantastic” time in charge of the Black Eagles, admitting he was surprised by his dismissal despite the famously volatile nature of Turkish football.
Speaking to his former Manchester United teammates Gary Neville and Roy Keane on The Overlap, the Norwegian coach, who was sacked early this season, provided a striking confession about the intense passion of the Istanbul club’s supporters and the dramatic end to his tenure.
The Siren Song of Istanbul
Solskjaer revealed that the move to Besiktas was not an impulse decision, having engaged in talks with the club twice before finally accepting an offer from the current president.
“When Besiktas made an offer, I did some research. I knew the history of the club,” Solskjaer explained. “I’ve been out of football for a while. A very large club made an offer. I said to myself, ‘accept it, go and enjoy it.'”
The veteran coach looked back on a promising start: “I was good at what I did, I did my best. We had captured an important form chart in our first season and we would have earned the right to go directly to Europe without almost playing in the elimination.”
The Turkish ‘Roller Coaster’
The former striker described his days in Turkey as a “roller coaster,” emphasizing the incredible atmosphere and fanatical support. “It was absolutely fantastic, great,” he said. “On both good and bad days, the fans were very passionate. Living in Istanbul, being together with Turks was absolutely fantastic.”
However, he acknowledged the challenge of managing a club where emotions run so high. “I am a calm man. However, when they win, they are very high, when they lose, they are very low. I will never be too high or too low,” he noted, adding, “When you won a match, it became a party, and when you lost a match, everyone died.”
Upon being reminded by Roy Keane that Turkish coaches average only about “six to seven months” in their roles, a smiling Solskjaer quipped, “I can say that I stayed longer than the six to seven coaches before me.”
A Sudden, Cordial Farewell
The end of his time at the club came swiftly after a loss in a crucial European qualifying match, a dismissal Solskjaer admitted he hadn’t anticipated.
“I didn’t think I would be sent away after losing the Conference League qualifying match,” he confessed. He described a surreal dinner with the president on the day of the match, where they discussed Manchester United’s own shock loss to a lower-division team. Hours later, he was summoned to the president’s office.
“I was at the press conference. As soon as they finished, they said, ‘The president wants to see you.’ There were two possibilities. The first was to be sent. Secondly, we were going to the national team break,” he recalled. “I said to myself that I will probably be removed from my post.”
Despite the decision, Solskjaer stated the parting was professional and heartfelt. “We talked in his office, we were sad, hugged and said ‘see you’ to each other,” he said. When Keane expressed surprise at the hug, Solskjaer clarified, “Because it wasn’t a personal decision. I still have very good relations with all of them. The results were not good and the issue had nothing to do with me personally. This is how things work in football.”
Solskjaer, who has since worked as a technical observer for the UEFA Champions League, remains philosophical about his exit. “My feelings don’t matter. They wanted to do this, so I said okay. No problem… I have never regretted accepting Besiktas’s offer, even a small piece. It was a great experience.”
