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Now that the joyride is over for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer he finds himself at the wheel of a very expensive sports car acknowledging just how must work is required to get it road-worthy once again.

The upkeep alone is enough to prompt feverish nightmares with Alexis Sanchez’s staggering wages being used as a bargaining tool for other stars to adjust their demands accordingly. Under the bonnet a crankshaft consisting of Matic and Herrera has seen better days and is due to be changed this summer at an extortionate cost while the Pogba piston works only sporadically. The brakes meanwhile are shot and bluntly the Norwegian will not want to be hurtling into the first turn of next season’s title race relying on Smalling, Shaw, Young and Jones to prevent an accident.

That’s enough with the analogies though. For a while they serve a purpose then become counter-productive and in a similar vein the same could be said of Solskjaer’s evocation of the ‘Spirit of ‘99’.

Regularly invoking Manchester United’s recent glory days – while reminding one and all that this is far from an ordinary club with ordinary criteria – was clearly a purposeful strategy employed by the nascent boss and clearly one too that worked a charm. Jose Mourinho’s sour end of days had sucked the life-force from an institution that thrives on vim and cocksurety and then in came a hero from an era when United didn’t just dominate English football but did so with a swagger and endless adventurous vitality. So to triumph the ‘Manchester United way’ made sense initially. It inflated chests. It instilled belief. It returned some enthusiasm and arrogance to Old Trafford.

And these qualities emphatically produced immediate results. Martial was reborn, Rashford was reinvigorated and Pogba was reanimated and on this surge of positivity the wins continued; 14 from the former super-sub’s first 17 in the technical area.

Yet from quite early on there was a notable change in approach, as Solskjaer recognised the limitations of his stock and amended to type. Their shape became more compact and long balls to Lukaku and Rashford into the channels became commonplace. The razzmatazz reverted to functionality.

This is what an evidently put-out Louis van Gaal was referring to recently when he said: “The way Manchester United are playing now is not the way Ferguson played. It is defensive, counterattacking football. The coach after me [Mourinho] changed to ‘park the bus’ tactics and played on the counter. Now there is another coach who parks the bus and plays on the counter”.

To be clear there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing pragmatically and nor is this intended as criticism of Solskjaer. Whatever gets you through the night. Whatever gets you the points. There is no right way when a top four spot is up for grabs. But this present incarnation of United does not have a direct lineage to Cantona and co and nor does illustrious DNA seep into the skin merely from putting on a red shirt. To suggest otherwise is no longer counter-ballast to the equally erroneous version of United that Mourinho espoused. To suggest otherwise, now that the honeymoon period is over, inverts to lying to yourself.

So Solskjaer’s first order of business as the defeats begin to mount up – four in his last five games – and the appointment of his dreams becomes grim actuality is to cut out the poetry and if that seems like an awfully petty point it is actually indicative of a much broader issue. For now is the time – as the initial optimism deflates and the Wolves start circling – to face a reality check: to take stock and assess who you are and where you and to determine where you might realistically be a year from now. To do otherwise is to run the risk of becoming Liverpool in the nineties. To believe you’re one thing but be quite another. Nobody wants to be Liverpool in the nineties.

That reality check is harsh on first sight and only gets harsher on further analysis. In defence former captain Antonio Valencia is leaving while Rojo and Darmian are dead-wood. An aging Ashley Young meanwhile is stuck in a depreciating spiral while Smalling and Jones are fine against the Bournemouths of this world but does any Red ever feel comfortable with the pair pitting their wits with the elite?

Typically United bring in no more than three players per summer transfer window but at the back alone they desperately need several new faces should they wish to compete seriously for silverware next term. Then there are the sums involved. Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly has been widely linked to the club and would be a significant upgrade, but he is only one man, one player. And at a perspective cost of £90m plus he will also eat into much of United’s entire budget.

If everything else was hunky-dory the defence on its own would present a huge problem in both scale and cost.

Stepping into midfield we find the statuesque Nemanja Matic, this being a rare instance of ‘statuesque’ not being used in a complimentary way while alongside and ahead of him Anders Herrera and Juan Mata are free to depart this summer and look very likely to. One star not expected to leave however is Paul Pogba so it exasperates that he has chosen once again to air his discontent through leaks to the French press. His relationship with Solskjaer has become strained apparently. How thoroughly and pathetically predictable.

Further forward the United boss has made no secret of his desire for a striker and winger in the forthcoming window and lord knows how much they’re going to cost but the financial demands are not only reserved for incoming talent. Both David De Gea and Anthony Martial have a year remaining on their existing contracts and each are said to be using Sanchez’s £350k per week as a yardstick for what they want to put pen to paper.

All told that is quite enough for any one person to be getting on with right now except that only tells part of the tale of course. United’s structure remains horribly askew and rooted in the dark ages with a Director of Football pertinently needed while on the pitch their quest to finish in the top four ramps up the pressure daily, essential as it is.

Securing the Manchester United manager’s job was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s dream. Now the hard works starts to make it a reality. It would take a warped mind to envy him.