If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer finds himself tuning into the European Championships this summer, the former Manchester United manager could be forgiven for allowing a wry smile to spread across his face.
Particularly if Gareth Southgate succeeds in harnessing the extraordinary potential of this England squad.
It was Solskjaer who brought England stalwart Harry Maguire to Manchester United back in 2019.
If the beloved Red Devils icon had his way, Old Trafford would have been home to Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice too, a pair of monstrous midfield maestros who – alongside Kobbie Mainoo – may just form two-thirds of the tournament’s most well-balanced engine room.
Solskjaer, during an interview with The Overlap which did nothing to dispel the notion that this was a Man United side held back by the lack of footballing intelligence in the Old Trafford boardroom, opened up on his attempts to lure Bellingham and Rice to the north west when they were making friends and influencing many at Birmingham City and West Ham respectively.
Jude Bellingham could have joined Manchester United
Unfortunately for Maguire, the Man United stopper has the pleasure of sharing a pitch with the England duo every few months rather than every day.
Maguire, speaking to Sky Sports last week, admitted that he took the Solskjaer route after seeing Bellingham in person, urging Man United to go all in on the Champions League winner before last summer’s £88 million move to Real Madrid.
“Since I trained with him in the first week, I knew what he would go on to achieve,” Maguire says during another interview, this time with talkSPORT. “He’s a great presence to have in the dressing room, to walk out of the tunnel with, and to play on the pitch with.
“With that presence, he brings the talent that he has, the personality that he has on the pitch.
“When I first met him and trained with him at England, I was surprised how good he was. When he went to Real Madrid, I knew he would go and excel and I am sure he will for many more years because he’s an unbelievable player.”
A Champions League winner at Real Madrid
Still only 20, Bellingham is already rapidly hurtling towards ‘football, completed it’ territory. In the space of just three years, the Stourbridge-born colossus has gone from England’s second tier in the blue of Birmingham to assisting Vinicius Junior’s winner in the Champions League final at Wembley.
Given his Midas Touch tendencies, who would really bet against Bellingham becoming the man who ends England’s 58 years of hurt on German soil this summer?
“He knew what he wanted. Jude, he was in the building,” Solskjaer explained, Bellingham holding talks at Carrington before opting to follow in Jadon Sancho’s Dortmund footsteps instead despite the best efforts of a host of United legends.
“I was there obviously as the manager. Sir Alex was there. Bryan Robson was there and (Eric) Cantona was there that day when he came to the club. We all spoke to him. Of course, we sold (a move to Man United) to him as well as we could.
“But he knew what he wanted; X amount of minutes in the first team. That’s it. The most mature 17-year-old I’ve ever met in my life.”