Sir Jim Ratcliffe has praised Ruben Amorim
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has praised Ruben Amorim as "intelligent and thoughtful" after appointing the 39-year-old as the club's new head coach last month.
Amorim's appointment was the latest significant change at the club under the direction of Ratcliffe and his Ineos company after his £1.25bn investment in February, taking a 27.7% stake in United. Ratcliffe has ripped up the football structure in that time, with a head coach now working under a sporting director in Dan Ashworth.
The 39-year-old has overseen two wins, a draw and a defeat since replacing Erik ten Hag, but Ratcliffe is confident has now got the right man in post at Old Trafford. The changes also included the appointment of Omar Berrada as chief executive, and Ratcliffe believes there will be progress now, while also issuing a warning about the club's financial issues.
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“We have a fantastic coach. He’s intelligent, thoughtful,” Ratcliffe told the United We Stand fanzine. “We have a great chief executive in Omar. We’re on the way, but this won’t happen overnight. There are financial issues which we need to address because we’ve inherited a financial situation that only time will solve.”
Despite the amount of changes since February, Ratcliffe has also warned that there is more to come as he tries to get United back on a sound footing.
“To get Manchester United to where we need to get it — it’s a bit like the country,” he said. “We have to make some difficult and unpopular decisions.
"If you shy away from the difficult decisions then nothing much is going to change. We won’t get everything right and it won’t happen overnight, but we haven’t been sat on our hands for nine months. There has been a lot of change.
"We didn’t waste any time to get Old Trafford on the agenda. Changes in the football and executive structure. New players. Ruben (Amorim) has arrived.
“We still have a long way to go and we still have a number of difficult decisions to make but we have to do that for the better. The club has drifted for a long period of time, a decade or so. Manchester United has become mediocre. It’s not elite and it is supposed to be one of the best football clubs in the world. That’s what it used to be under Alex. There is major change to come to achieve elite status. There has already been huge change.”