Manchester United and Ruben Amorim are in a transitional moment during their journey, and both hope it’s the first bump in a long road.
Ruben Amorim took over a team that is not his in the middle of the season while they were going through their worst moment, while the same can be said for the ownership group.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe recently laid bare Man Utd’s problems and the true extent of them with his brutally honest thoughts on transfer mistakes, his own errors, and more.
Amidst it all, Amorim caught onto a particular thing Omar Berrada said recently that he had, until then, only “felt” at Old Trafford.
Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images
Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images
Ruben Amorim on Omar Berrada
It is no secret that Amorim has been a manager whose arrival at Old Trafford was strongly pushed by Berrada, with the Spaniard flying over to Lisbon to accelerate the deal.
Ratcliffe is a huge Amorim fan too, and that would have resulted in the Man Utd manager feeling the backing of the board.
However, the results have been so bad that any other manager/board would have been tested in their resolve to hold their finger on the trigger.
Still, Berrada recently said during Man Utd’s new stadium plan announcement that he would like Amorim to be the manager when the club moves to their new home.
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With the stadium expected to take five years to complete, that’s quite a backing from the CEO, something Amorim said was “different” to hear.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Amorim said: “It’s a very good feeling [public show of support]. But I felt that support and I listened to that in every match because winning or losing, they are there.
“They are in the dressing room talking about the game, the future, to be calm… so I always felt that support, but to hear that support publicly is a different thing.”
Ineos are all-in on Amorim
In any other circumstance, a manager who has United in 14th place in the Premier League in March would have been under serious pressure, if not sacked already.
However, these are unique circumstances not just in terms of the squad or the manager, but the overall upheaval the club is going through.
Most importantly, Amorim is Ineos’ first managerial call at Old Trafford, and it comes after the disaster that was extending Erik ten Hag.
They absolutely cannot afford to get this wrong or the already terrible optics will become borderline untenable this soon into their ownership.
For his part, Amorim has done nothing to show that he is not the right man. Yes, the results have been far from good enough but there are enough building blocks and clarity of vision to prove that he’s worth hitching a wagon to.
Ineos are all-in on him from day one and the rest he’ll have to do himself by starting to win games.