Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted it would be “miraculous” if Manchester United were to challenge for the Premier League title next season.
It has been a chastening campaign for a side that finished runners-up to Manchester City last term as a poor start under Jose Mourinho left United well adrift of the front-runners before the turn of the year.
The Red Devils were initially rejuvenated when Solskjaer replaced Mourinho, winning 14 of the Norwegian’s first 17 fixtures at the helm, but their progress has stuttered since then.
Irrespective of their result against Cardiff in their final game of the season, United will miss out on a top-four finish and Solskjaer knows his side have some catching up to do on their rivals.
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Solskjaer, whose side are 29 points behind league-leaders City, said: “Challenging for the title next year would be a miraculous season because we are so far behind at the moment, points-wise. “It’s not like when I used to play that it was us or Arsenal that were going to win the league, and then Chelsea came. “Now it’s a very, very competitive competition and we’re challenging against the best teams in the world for these trophies.
That tells us that it’s going to be a great challenge. We want to get back to where we used to be. “Next season, we’ve got to close that gap. If we manage to get to February or March and being close then that’s fantastic.”
