Two stars 'turned down' Man Utd captaincy under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after Norwegian laid bare doomed Old Trafford reign

Two of Manchester United’s star players turned down the captaincy under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a fresh report has claimed.

This week, the Norwegian spoke out about his Old Trafford for the first time since departing the club two seasons prior, with his side losing 38 matches and drawing 33 more in his 149-game stint.

In his interview with the Athletic, Solskjaer made several remarks on the culture at United and criticised the behaviour of some players during his time as manager.

The 50-year-old said: "Some weren't as good as their own perception of themselves. I won't name names, but I was very disappointed when a couple turned down the chance to be captain.

"I was also disappointed when others said they wouldn't play or train because they wanted to force their way out."

While Solskjaer was unwilling to share who had turned down the United captaincy, a Sun report, quoting an unnamed source, with Marcus Rashford named as one of the stars who rejected the armband.

The source alleged: “Rashford was asked to take the captaincy but he didn't think he was ready for it.”

Bruno Fernandes is the current holder of the armband having inherited the role from Harry Maguire given his well-publicised fall from grace at Old Trafford.

Antonio Valencia was skipper when Solskjaer took caretaker charge of the club in December 2018, before being installed as United's permanent boss three months later.

But when the Ecuadorian left, the armband went to Ashley Young for six months before his departure to Inter Milan.

At that point, Maguire was named club captain, an honour he maintained officially until this summer.

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Topics: Football, Manchester United, Premier League, Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.