Ruben Amorim
Ruben Amorim's best moments at United have come in the Europa League
The stakes couldn't be much higher for Manchester United and Tottenham in Bilbao next week. A trophy to wash away at least some of the shame of a season of total embarrassment on the domestic front, an unlikely spot in the Champions League and a £100million+ boost to the summer transfer budget.
For Ange Postecoglou and Ruben Amorim, maybe there is some personal salvation too, the chance to turn a narrative around, but their situations look set. Postecoglou is very likely to leave Spurs, win or lose, and Amorim will stay at United, win or lose. The Aussie could walk away with a trophy and enhance his job prospects elsewhere, and the Portuguese could buy himself time at Old Trafford, but this final is bigger for the clubs rather than the managers.
It looks like this will be a battle between the 16th and 17th best teams in the Premier League. The big six superpowers are somehow only propped up by the three teams getting relegated this season. Whatever happens in Bilbao, the stain of such a dismal 38-game campaign won't be removed completely.
But it's about next season as well, and although Amorim is desperate for the trophy, he sounds uncertain about the rewards that will follow, not in terms of the silverware, but a spot in the Champions League for a team that he has declared aren't ready for such challenges.
Take this snippet from his post-match press conference on Sunday after losing to West Ham: "I don’t know what is best, if it’s playing Champions League or not."
Or this from his pre-match press conference ahead of the Europa League quarter-final second leg against Lyon: "If you look at this moment, I think we are not ready to be really competitive in the Premier League and to cope with the Champions League. I think it’s really clear and we have to be really clear."
It was in that press conference before the rollercoaster ride against the Ligue 1 side that Amorim first considered the possibility that being in the Champions League might not be the be-all and end-all it has been made out to be in the last couple of months.
"If you have Champions League, it’s going to be tough to play against top teams on Wednesday and then top teams in [the] Premier League," he said.
"We are in the moment that you can feel it that the team needs a lot of work. A lot of work means a lot of time to train. So, you can see it both ways. If you don’t have Champions League – and we want Champions League, we want to win the title, it’s the most important thing, it’s the best thing – but if you don’t have Champions League, you can think that we can have full weeks to rebuild and have more time to work. So that is important when are going to make the plan for the next season, it’s really important, it will change everything."
The obvious advantages to being in the Champions League are the financial rewards it offers and the fact that top players want to be in that competition. That will be massive to United at a time when they have skirted close to the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability regulations (PSR).
But for a coach, free midweeks offer more time on the training ground. Amorim is desperate for extra sessions at Carrington to develop his ideas, and he will need time next season to drill what could be a new-look squad.
You only have to look at Chelsea in 2016/17 to see the advantages of not playing European competition. They missed out after a dismal season the year before, but with Antonio Conte in charge and their schedule clear, they had time to work on his 3-5-2 system and stormed to the title.
Nobody is suggesting that will happen to United, but it shows the advantages of having extra time on the training ground, and that sounds like something Amorim is valuing at the moment.
That's not to say he will go into next week's final hoping United lose. He will be desperate to win. But if the worst does happen, he has already explained why it doesn't have to be the disaster many will consider it to be.