Ruben Amorim had such a blindingly successful time at Sporting before his arrival at Manchester United that even though the two circumstances are different, some things can be borrowed.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe seems to have taken that to heart if the latest noises surrounding the club are any indication of the direction.
Ratcliffe has already unconditionally hitched his wagon to Ruben Amorim, giving him a public vote of confidence so it makes sense to lean into his philosophy.
The latest example has come in the area that needed it the most, the transfer window, where he’s ready to repeat at Old Trafford what Amorim did at Sporting when he started out.
Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
Man Utd to repeat Ruben Amorim’s Sporting trick
United’s insistence on getting Amorim through the door midway through the season was widely criticised and lamented by the Man Utd manager as well.
He didn’t have time to train his squad as per his principles and took over a bunch of players low on confidence and unsuited to his demands.
However, the flipside advantage is that now he knows what every player is, which role suits them best, and who he can move on.
The Manchester Evening News reports that United are aiming for a departure of as many as ten first-team players in the summer, with a view to taking a large-scale rebuilding project.
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Man Utd fans have heard it all before but this is the first time Ineos are overseeing a window with their own man in charge and most importantly, someone who’s done this thing before.
Amorim’s ruthlessness in full display
It goes without saying that moving on 25 players at Man Utd is far more difficult (borderline impossible) than it is at Sporting, where the salaries are much more palatable.
In that sense, selling ten at United is almost as big a feat as selling 25 at Sporting, which brings to Amorim’s ruthless nature.
Many managers before him have bought their own players, but barring Louis van Gaal, nobody has managed to gut the squad of high-earning underperformers.
If Amorim and Ineos manage to do that in a single summer, that will be half the problem solved in wage trimming plus any transfer fee to be reinvested.
It is shaping up to be United’s most influential window in more than a decade.