Mitten in Morocco: Day 2 - Call to prayer, call from Solskjaer: a morning of chaos on the journey to Rabat

I was awoken by the call to prayer in Fes’ ancient Medina, the beautiful sound emanating from the nearby minarets. I looked at my phone and there were 62 new messages, including from the former Manchester United manager Ole Gunar Solskjaer, who has been in Manchester for New Year, doing normal things like going shopping and to the cinema with his wife.

He’s met many fans over the past few days, some telling him that he should come back to the club, something that is now a reality after Ruben Amorim lost his job.

Solskjaer received a call Tuesday morning and had talks with United, a club he played for with distinction for nine years and managed for almost three. United first wanted to establish if he was interested in returning to the club. He was.

The discussion went well and Solskjaer acknowledged that the other candidates mentioned were all good ones in his opinion and told United just that. I had messages and requests throughout the day from many outlets in many countries wanting me to speak about Solskjaer. I didn’t accept any of them.

I had pressing issues to sort, a bag full of toiletries to replace, including specific contact lenses and a sold-out train to Rabat with no ticket. Then I received a message from the organisers of the Africa Cup of Nations, the reason I'm in Morocco, stating: "Media ticket application declined". It continued: "After careful consideration, we regret to inform you that your media request has not been approved. Unfortunately, due to capacity constraints to the media tribune capacity we are unable to accommodate your request for access.”

I’d gone all the way to Morocco only to be denied media access to see a game on the day of the match. Not good.

I asked around and discovered there were 900 journalist requests for 150 seats.