Ruben Amorim was appointed as Manchester United manager in November, but has struggled to make an impact at Old Trafford with the Red Devils finishing 15th this season
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10:22, 14 Jun 2025
Rio Ferdinand has warned that Ruben Amorim has until Christmas to prove himself at Old Trafford.
The Portuguese manager, who took over from Erik ten Hag in November, has struggled to adapt his squad to his style of play, resulting in a disappointing 15th place Premier League finish for the Red Devils, with cup success also eluding them. Despite this being United's worst-ever Premier League finish, it seems the board are willing to back the 40-year-old with a full summer transfer window and pre-season to make changes.
However, Ferdinand believes that Amorim only has half a season to start delivering results before his position is called into question. "I think the recruitment, he needs that time," Ferdinand told the Mirror.
"He's had one player, [Patrick] Dorgu, that he's been able to recruit. So, it looks like [Matheus] Cunha's come, and I think there's hopefully going to be one or two more in this window.
"Then you can start judging him a little bit more. I don't think in his wildest dreams he thought he'd have finished 15th. None of us fans would have thought that either. So, that's been a huge disappointment in that sense.
"But I don't think you can fully judge everything he's done yet when he hasn't had a chance to bring in players. We're judging him based on someone else's players. And I think, yeah, get to Christmas and let's see how we're looking."
Following the lavish expenditure by Ten Hag on the likes of Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt, and Leny Yoro in the summer, Amorim found himself restricted in January's window, resulting in United securing the signings of Dorgu from Lecce for £25.1million and Ayden Heaven from Arsenal in a low-cost deal around the £1m mark. In contrast, United have already made a strong start to the early summer transfer window with the acquisition of Cunha from Wolves for £62.5m, focusing on strengthening their striking options.
Rio Ferdinand looks on ahead of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final
Rio Ferdinand has spoken about Ruben Amorim(Image: PA)
Links with other players like Viktor Gyokeres, Victor Osimhen and Bryan Mbeumo persist, though there's speculation about Mbeumo possibly joining Thomas Frank at Tottenham instead. Various managers have attempted to revive the club's former glories achieved by Sir Alex Ferguson during his tenure, among them being David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
But none succeeded in restoring United's dominance. And Ferdinand also pointed out the possibility of multiple factors contributing to the lack of a Premier League title for the club in over a decade.
He added: "If I had the answer to that question, I'd be at Man Utd now sorting things out. But I don't think it's ever one reason. I don't think when you have failures in anything, in any walk of life, it's down to one single thing.
"I think there's a number of different things that you could point to for the demise of Manchester United and sustained lack of success. I think one of them being the recruitment will be high on the list of most people, saying that the recruitment's been wrong.
Ruben Amorim, Manager of Manchester United reacts during the UEFA Europa League Final 2025
Ruben Amorim has until Christmas to turn it around at Manchester United
"For whatever reason, for various different reasons, identifying the wrong players technically, tactically, physically, mentally at times, that's been an issue. Were the managers right for the club at the respective times that they came? Maybe not, some of them.
"And I think the actual infrastructure of the football club behind the scenes has been probably something that you looked at and gone, actually, that could have been better. And there was a big change.
"Not many clubs lose their manager, the most successful manager they've ever had, and the CEO in the same window. But Man Utd had done that, and they had two people that were pivotal to the success. One was a lot more public and was understood to be the driver of the whole machine, which he was to a certain point.
"But every great manager, every great individual, there's always a sidekick somewhere, and David Gill was that for Sir Alex Ferguson. So, to lose two of them when United did was definitely a hammer blow, but never recovered since."
Rio Ferdinand poses at a Talking Futures event
Rio Ferdinand has launched the Career Transfer Hub with Talking Futures
Ferdinand has recently launched his Career Transfer Hub with Talking Futures to help connect teenagers with their parents in planning their futures. Commenting on the initiative, Ferdinand said: "I think it's about empowering kind of families to talk more about education, especially parents.
"I think we're comfortable talking about a lot of things, i.e. football, a lot of the time in and around the front room or across the table with your kids, but getting that kind of common ground when you're talking about education, sometimes it's quite difficult, even I've found it difficult at times.
"So something like this is definitely a good way in and a good avenue in to kind of having those conversations about what's next in your life, education wise, where do you see yourself going? What paths are you looking at?
"And this is a great, I think, avenue for parents to really kind of touch the paper and go, right, listen, here we go, and start walking their kids down the right path, giving them a little bit of autonomy over it, but also guide them a little bit at the same time. So I wish I'd had this when I was younger - although I had football, which I was quite fortunate with."
Rio Ferdinand has partnered with Talking Futures to launch the Career Transfer Hub – giving parents access to information on their child’s education options just like football agents have transfer insiders, negotiation teams and career scouts. You can find out more here.