They do not make strikers like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer any more.

There are frontmen who score more goals, who play more matches, who suffer less injuries and possess bigger egos.

But in a world in which strikers invariably receive the richest rewards, Solskjaer, whose enduring knee problems have finally prompted his retirement at the age of 34, was an example to all.

A man who put loyalty to Manchester United above personal fortune and whose willingness to put the team above his own self interest was perhaps his greatest asset.

In these days of grasping agents, third party ownership and perennial club-hopping it is good to see that United recognise such qualities so much that Solskjaer is likely to stay on at Old Trafford as a coach and continue in his role as a club ambassador.

When Solskjaer kissed the United badge after scoring one of the 126 goals he netted in 366 appearances in 11 years at Old Trafford you knew the sentiment was heartfelt and not the empty gesture it appears from more vacuous characters.

More than anything that loyalty was what endeared the Norwegian striker with the innocent smile to football at large.

That and an uncanny knack to come off the bench and score vital goals. Lots of them.

Such as the four he once scored in the space of 12 minutes in an 8-1 away win at Nottingham Forest. Or the four he scored at home against Everton.

One, however, transcends all others, the reflex lunge which won the Champions League final for United against Bayern Munich in 1999 to secure a famous Treble which ensures Solskjaer his place in history.

You had to be there at the Nou Camp stadium on that heady night in Barcelona to appreciate the drama of that moment.

To see the sheer joy on the faces of United old-boys such as Tony Dunne, Alex Stepney and Nobby Stiles up in the stands. To appreciate the gut-wrenching effect on the Germans who had dominated that final only to see the trophy wrested from them so cruelly in injury time.

No wonder they called Solskjaer the "baby-faced assassin".

The fact is that a fit Solskjaer, free of the cruciate knee damage which was to blight the latter years of his career, was Sir Alex Ferguson's banker.

The player he could trust and would turn to when inspiration from other sources had run dry.

Perhaps only Liverpool's supersub of the 1970s, the carrot-haired David Fairclough, has come close to providing the impact from the bench which Solskjaer supplied so regularly.

How ironic then that Solskjaer should be forced to bow out just when Ferguson needed him most.

United may have spent more than £50million on team strengthening during the summer but their stuttering start to the season can be traced directly to a dearth of strikers.

With Alan Smith having been sold to Newcastle and Guiseppe Rossi to Villarreal plus Wayne Rooney suffering from a fractured foot and concerns over the fitness of Louis Saha, in reality Carlos Tevez, a man still finding his feet at his new club, is the lone striker still standing.

That is no way to begin the defence of a Premier League title and why a swirl of speculation still surrounds Ferguson's potential interest in capturing a Dimitar Berbatov or a Nicolas Anelka before the transfer window closes.

Football's big trophies are won by teams with deep squads and prolific goal-scorers.

And, as Ferguson knows only too well, there is no substitute for a substitute like Solskjaer.