Imagine if Jose Mourinho had revealed he felt the need for one-on-one chats with under-performing Manchester United individuals. And named them.
Imagine if he talked of “reality checks” and of there being “no hiding place”.
Oh, hang on a minute. He pretty much did… and, generally, he got hammered for it.
Ole is officially at the wheel — and driving into Mourinho territory.
Nothing particularly wrong with that, nothing particularly wrong with telling a few home truths. Only, in a way, they are untruths .
Because at Old Trafford right now – and for a long time – there IS a hiding place, meaning players do not need reality checks.
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As long as the tills keep ringing and the Glazers keep creaming off vast amounts of lovely lucre, there is a hiding place.
As long as the owners and other investors pocket £65million in dividends in three years, there is a hiding place.
As long as Ed Woodward and his commercial whizz-people continue to sign partnerships with mattress manufacturers, wine producers and kitchen makers, there is a hiding place.
As long as directors and executives bank annual salaries totalling £13m, there is a hiding place.
There is a hiding place as long as the value of the club remains stratospheric. And a season without a trophy, and without the Champions League qualification spot that's looking dicey after Everton 4-0 Man Utd: 5 talking points as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men thrashed at Goodison Park by Everton, will not change that.
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Such is the remarkable commercial footing of the club, only a long, sustained run without mixing with the European elite would change that.
By then, the Glazers will have sold out for a huge profit and Woodward could buy a small Caribbean island with his bonuses.
For all the relative mediocrity that has been served up since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, the club, financially, has ticked along just fine. So the need to transform the executive process, as Manchester City did when Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain were brought in, has not been felt.
Who needs a joined-up transfer policy when you can get by with scattergun signings, remain a thriving business and still be seen as a great institution?
Which it is, of course. And the squad has a lot of talent in its ranks.
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Yet it is a terrible reflection of their recruitment and development system that the squad is also chronically imbalanced, hence the fielding of a defence that was so embarrassingly out of its depth against Barcelona in midweek. A defence that features several players luxuriating in freshly-signed contracts.
The reality of the Premier League is that the standard at the top is very high.
The high-office structures, including managers, at two clubs, Man City and Liverpool, who will amass the best part of 200 points between them this season, might not be as commercially slick as United’s, but are clearly way ahead when it comes to helping produce outstanding football teams.
That is a reality check the Glazers and Woodward should be taking. Instead, their reality is that, as long as Wall Street gets a financially upbeat conference call every few months, all is well.
And that is what gives players a hiding place.
