Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer jokes he will make Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk homeless if given permanent role

The Dutch centre-back rents the Cheshire home that Solskjaer has owned since his playing days at Old Trafford

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has jokingly warned Virgil van Dijk to expect an eviction notice if and when Manchester United give their caretaker-manager the job on a permanent basis.

Solskjaer has won 14 out of 17 matches since replacing Jose Mourinho on a temporary basis in December, but is still officially only contracted until June.

However, it appears increasingly likely that he will stay on beyond then, which could create a problem for Liverpool defender Van Dijk.

The Dutch centre-back rents the Cheshire home that Solskjaer has owned since his playing days at Old Trafford, and which he tried unsuccessfully to sell after moving back to his native Norway with his family.

Solskjaer is looking for a base close to Manchester so that he can bring his family to England to live with him should he get the United job permanently, but it would appear that Van Dijk will be staying put for now.

Asked about the situation, the United caretaker-manager joked: “Yeah, he's evicted.”

When Solskjaer took the job at Old Trafford, it had been thought that he was on loan from Norwegian club Molde for the rest of the season.

However, he revealed to a Norwegian podcast at the start of the week that his contract with the Norwegian club had been terminated.

Solskjaer, a prolific striker for United between 1996 and 2007, was considered a surprising appointment to replace Mourinho, given that his only previous experience in British management ended with him being sacked by Cardiff City in 2014 after just nine months in charge.

However, he believes he was destined to become a manager, having honed his skills on computer games as a youth.

Solskjaer has won 14 of his 17 games in charge at United (Getty) (Man Utd via Getty Images)

He said: “I think I have prepared all my life for this [management]. Ever since I was a kid, when I played computer games, I wrote out all the teams with my mates.

“They were good old times when I used to sign Zico, Maradona and Marco van Basten.

“I think I have secretly always wanted to do the job I am doing now.

“I probably believe more that I can be a football coach than a football player. It took me quite a few years to get to the level I wanted to be at as a player.”

Solskjaer has taken United firmly into the contest for fourth place in the Premier League since his arrival, with Sunday’s visit to Arsenal likely to be significant in deciding who gets the final Champions League qualification spot at the end of the season.

However, he feels United should be pushing to make themselves serious contenders again for the league title, which they last won in 2013.

To that end, he has demanded that the players continue to show the kind of effort that brought them a remarkable Champions League victory over Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.

He said: “We need more time to be challenging but that’s what this club should be doing.

“The foundation is here and we just need to add a few attributes to the squad, as in what we saw against PSG. The total running distance was the highest we’ve had. We need to get there.

Solskjaer has implored his players to bring the same energy to each upcoming match as against PSG (Reuters) (Action Images via Reuters)

“There’s absolutely no reason why Manchester United shouldn’t be the hardest-working team in the league.

“If you ask the Molde players back home, the things I always demand from the players are workrate, and attitude and fitness. So we need to keep working on the fitness and next season, the players know they will be asked if they want to challenge the top.

“That’s what you see from the top teams in the league, they run more than us. And that’s not acceptable really.”