It’s not often that a Manchester United legend getting recognition is bad news for the club but the latest award for Roy Keane implies exactly that for Ruben Amorim.
Ruben Amorim is already no stranger to getting dragged into verbal back-and-forths with Man Utd legends, be it defending Bruno Fernandes from Roy Keane, and hitting back at Wayne Rooney calling him “naive”.
The narrative around Man Utd has reached such a fever pitch this season that even United players have hit back on occasion, like Lisandro Martinez at Paul Scholes.
Their problems have now been summed up by Roy Keane getting an award that puts into context the problems hurting the club.
Roy Keane gets awarded
Despite the club languishing in the bottom half of the league table, it is an undeniable fact that no other club generates quite as many talking points as Man Utd.
Ironically, most of the takes come from the club’s own former players, and those takes are not always the brightest in the discussion.
However, what they are guaranteed to do is generate even more discussion, and Roy Keane stands near the top of the contributor’s list with his no-nonsense statements.
For that trait of his, Keane has been awarded the Pundit of the Year award by the British Sports Journalism Awards, probably to nobody’s surprise who watches him regularly.
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To be fair to Keane, his attachment to United makes him more quotable than when he talks about other teams but he’s brutally honest about others too.
Still, between this award and Amorim’s ongoing battle to remain in control of the narrative at Old Trafford, a big problem has been summed up.
Ruben Amorim will relate with previous Man Utd managers
Scathing takes on Man Utd will always be quotable material but it serves to destabilise the team at the cost of the person saying it going viral.
This has been a problem for previous Man Utd managers as well, be it Jose Mourinho calling out Paul Scholes for his criticism of Paul Pogba or Rio Ferdinand lifting the curtain on David Moyes’ time.
At a club where every action is scrutinised endlessly anway, ex-players of Man Utd have only served to heighten the extreme points of view surrounding the club.
When legends of other clubs, someone like Jamie Carragher for Liverpool or Ian Wright for Arsenal, back the team in difficult times, United legends have had a tendency to do a pile-on.
That naturally gets more traction as opposition fans join in too, resulting in Keane getting awards like these but in the long run, it’s hurting the club.