United players did not celebrate in the dressing room after discovering Jose Mourinho was sacked and have to take responsibility for his departure, according to Ashley Young.
The football world was shocked on Tuesday morning when United confirmed they had dismissed Mourinho after two-and-a-half years in charge - without a hint of the announcement coming.
Yes, it has been a turbulent few months - United were 11 points off the top four - but the Glazers had never previously sacked a manager when qualification for the Champions League was still mathematically possible. Also, they have never given a manager such a huge pay-off.
But in a whirlwind 24 hours, Mourinho was replaced by club hero Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who will take charge as interim manager until the end of the season.
Reports had claimed there were joyous scenes in the dressing room when the players were informed of the news but Young, the club's stand-in skipper, denied that was the case.
"No celebration at all. Absolute lies," he told reporters after United's 5-1 win against Cardiff. "Obviously it was disappointing for the manager to get sacked. In his two-and-a-half years, he won trophies. We have to take some responsibility for that [his sacking] as we are on the pitch.
"Like I said. we have to move on from that. Ole has come in and we were preparing in the right way for a game even though it’s been a crazy week, but as professional players we have to get on with the job in hand and that is what we did today."
Solskjaer got his reign off to a dream start with the rout at the Cardiff City Stadium and United scored five goals for the first time in the post-Ferguson era.
United now head into the festive season full of confidence with games against Huddersfield, Bournemouth and Newcastle to come in the next week-and-a-half.
Is it any wonder Solskjaer has put smiles on faces again?
"I don’t think he has stopped smiling," Young added. "He was like that as a player, he always has a smile on his face, and I think that can reflect down on to the team which is a good thing.
"After a performance like that, I am sure he will be delighted. We have just got to concentrate what is going on the pitch and look ahead to the next game."
neubcenprz
68
The defence Morihno has been complaining about is not an issue in an all attacking football. I remember Ferguson to have been using midfielders as defenders when his natural defenders like Rio or Vida were hit by injuries. I remember to have watched Michael Carrick in defence. Of my memory does not betray me that is how Phil Jones, Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia have ended up being defenders. I remember Pep turning Taya Toure into a central defender in one of the UEFA champions league finals against United. Gerald Pique was a midfielder. So hunger for Morihno to spend on very expensive defenders is not called for. Thank God he has left. And Ole will expose every ill spoken word he uttered against the quality of Man U squad. Yes, it is a single game, but you could already feel a sense of a genius leading Man United dugout. And emotions started to compel Man United supporters to start comparing Ole with Pep. I can prophesy that the best is yet to come.
Perecozy
59
Mr young or captain but up till now you never said a word or appreciation to your X manager after been sack ,you all are all the same birds 🦅 of the same feather flock together which is to say you all want Jose to leave ,no matter how much you pretend to be the nice guy among the rest you guys are all the same .Jose will always and remain Jose because with him you are sure of trophy just your first Match under Sol you guys are making lots of noise like kids who have not won a game before having a score line of 4-1 under Jose . At the end of the season we shall see if you guys will be playing CL next season