By Michael Burney
When Erik ten Hag was sacked, the board quickly moved to secure the services of the highly rated manager of Sporting Lisbon, Ruben Amorim. He is a man who had won the Primeira Liga twice and had delivered Sporting’s first title since 2001/02 when winning his first league championship in 2021. A man who had in a way broken up a two-team monopoly on the Portuguese league, which was straight from the Alex Ferguson at Aberdeen playbook.
When approached by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Omar Berrada, initially Amorim had asked to stay in his homeland until the summer. The feeling was he’d like to see out the season, win another league title, see how far they could go in the Champions League and then arrive at Carrington in June to start pre season and begin his plans to turn around the fortunes of the 20 times champions of England. A fantastic victory over Manchester City in Europe in one of his final games in Lisbon showcased the work he had carried out at Sporting during his successful near five years in the Portuguese capital.
It is claimed that Amorim was told it was “now or never” when it came to accepting the offer to manage Manchester United. The club already had Ruud van Nistelrooy in interim charge ready to take the club to the end of the season if needed. It was claimed in the press that the players liked the Dutchman and that he treated them as adults and with more respect than his countryman and predecessor, ten Hag. As it turns out, the board were determined to land their number one target mid-season and Amorim accepted the offer to come to Manchester. However, with regards to the ultimatum, he may well now have wished it was “never”.
In his 24 games in charge since taking the hotseat, Amorim has only won 10 and has lost 9 of them. The club are 14th in the league, and have now been dumped out of the FA Cup at the 5th round stage. The whole campaign, and European qualification for next season, solely lies with the Europa League. A tricky two-legged tie with Real Sociedad is not straightforward and could easily see Manchester United’s season over by mid-March.
The job is already taking a toll on the 40 year-old Portuguese manager. His comments in pre and post-match press conferences show the strain and frustrations with his squad.Most recently, following the FA Cup exit at the hands of Fulham, he reacted to comments from United’s record goalscorer, Wayne Rooney, who was working on the game for the BBC. It was something that he didn’t really need to get involved with and he may be better served not answering every question and reacting to every comment that is put to him. However, this is what the stresses of the job can do to any manager and honesty in the main is to be applauded.
It is clear that the current squad are not good enough to play for Manchester United. It is also clear that they are struggling to adapt to the 343 system which Ruben Amorim is insistent of employing. It is a system which worked like clockwork in Lisbon, and one which suited the players that he had which over time he had assembled to once again become the best team in Portuguese football. At United, he simply does not possess the players to carry out his style of play and that won’t change anytime soon.
It is becoming clearer, that whilst Amorim is correct to stick to the approach which made him successful and in wanting to create a better environment and culture within the squad, that he may not get the time or resources to be able to see the job through properly. A bit like Ralf Rangnick, the former Portuguese international midfielder, is not backwards in coming forwards. He has already indicated that the team do not run hard or fast enough. He demands high energy and desire from his players. The evidence on the pitch is quite the opposite and on various occasions Amorim has called this out in the public domain.
The treatment of Marcus Rashford is a case in point. The local lad had clearly lost his way at United. His efforts and mood on the pitch were infuriating at times. The new manager, almost straight away, noticed this and dropped him, along with Alejandro Garnacho, for the derby at the Etihad, which United went on to win 2-1 late in the day thanks to two goals from Amad Diallo who has arguably been the only bright spark from this campaign.
As soon as January came, it was clear that Rashford would be jettisoned. The main issue would be who would take on his wages or pay a fee for the highest earner at the club. The players brother and agent was rumoured to be courting clubs across Europe, from Barcelona to Milan. In the end he landed at Aston Villa on loan and Amorim would surely be glad that one issue had been dealt with until the summer at least. The problem, however, is that most of the squad lack the necessary ability and/or attitude to play for Manchester United, let alone adapt to the methods to which Amorim is wed and are on, in the main, big contracts.
It appears the reality has dawned on the manager that he simply cannot replicate the success and buy in from his squad that he enjoyed in Lisbon, in the short term at the very least. The squad requires major surgery of the kind Rangnick recommended back in 2022. The problem that Amorim faces however, is that due to the financial constraints on the club, it is likely he is going to have sell to buy. There aren’t too many players who will either command the fees that United would like to receive or that other clubs would take on similar wages that they are currently earning at Old Trafford or a combination of both.
There have already been reports that both Casemiro and Andre Onana intend to see out the deals they signed when joining the club, which is entirely their right. It could well be that due to the Premier League’s PSR rules that ‘home-grown’ players may need to be sacrificed to raise funds to improve the squad. This would put Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo in the cross-hairs, whom are arguably two players that the club could do with keeping.
The chickens really have come home to roost at Manchester United. There has been 20 years of neglect from the Glazer family and the debt they loaded onto the club as part of their leveraged buyout has been crippling and strangling England’s biggest footballing institution. In Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS, there is the potential that their current shareholding may increase and a full purchase of the remaining Glazer shares may happen. However, it has been a troubling and underwhelming start from them in charge of the footballing operations at the club.
The ridiculous situation surrounding the pursuit and ultimate parting of the ways with Director of Football Dan Ashworth has been embarrassing. It was rumoured that Ashworth wanted either a British manager or someone with experience of the Premier League to succeed Erik ten Hag and that despite his job being to make these decisions, he was overruled and that others in the leadership team decided on a different direction.
All-in-all it’s a mess. The redundancies and cost cutting by INEOS has sapped an already plummeted morale around the place even further. The chronic mis-management at the club over the years has led to this situation and the Glazers seem to have got their lightening rod in Sir Jim Ratcliffe, like Tony Soprano did by allowing Uncle Junior to run things in public on The Sopranos. Hopefully for Ruben Amorim he doesn’t meet an equally grim demise as the New Jersey mob boss, in football terms at least, but the writing appears to be on the wall in the sense that for all his ability and potential Ruben Amorim may not get the tools and wiggle room needed to succeed in what is becoming one of football’s most poisoned chalice’s and that he has been set up to fail.
Featured image: “RubenAmorim” by Agência Lusa is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Callum McFadden 