Alan Shearer has launched a furious attack on Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim, explaining why the club are worse under his management and feeling it would come as no surprise were he to lose his job and having also explained why they face a “long, hard summer” to strengthen the squad.
The Red Devils have painfully fumbled their way through the 2024/25 season, and the first full campaign overseen by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS has been nothing short of a disaster. Astonishingly, Manchester United could have salvaged their season with victory in Wednesday’s Europa League final, but, having put in a tepid display, had to watch on as Tottenham Hotspur ended their 17-year wait for silverware in Bilbao.
With Amorim having now lost more games than he has won (15 wins, 16 defeats) in his 41 matches at the helm, he is by some distance the worst-performing United manager in the Premier League era.
And having offered to walk away without any compensation if United decide to get rid in the wake of Wednesday’s defeat at the Estadio San Mames, Shearer insists he wouldn’t be surprised if there was a change in the dug-out.
“There will be a lot of questions around Ruben Amorim’s future now, and very much like the Spurs situation, it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t the manager at the beginning of the season. Whether that’s his choice or not, I guess,” Shearer said in his column for Betfair.
“I’ve said it so many times, there’s no way he’s gone into that football club and expected what he found. There’s no way he thought it was that bad. He couldn’t have, because I’m not sure you’d go.”
Shearer also feels United have regressed as a football club under his management when compared to Erik ten Hag.
“He hasn’t helped the situation. They’ve actually got so much worse under him. It might have been papering over the cracks if they had won the Europa League, but their problems were summed up in that 97 minutes: no creativity, no legs, no energy, no goals, and a complete mess.”
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Shearer feels Man Utd have hard summer of transfers ahead
Shearer was also pained by United’s reliance on Harry Maguire – a defender – to get them a goal in Bilbao and feels their tactics are ’embarrassing’.
“Manchester United were relying on a centre half, with long balls into the box in the last 15 or 20 minutes of the game, and that sort of sums up who and what they’ve come to.
“It’s a pretty embarrassing situation when you’re looking to a centre-half to rescue you, as he did in the semi-final and a couple of times by playing in that centre forward position.
“That’s who and what Man United have come to now. That’s the embarrassing thing; the money they’ve spent, especially on strikers, yet they’re chucking a centre-half up front for the last 15 minutes of the game and launching long balls up to him. That’s how bad Man Utd are.”
Shearer also feels United have a long hard summer ahead of them with regards new signings as they look to bring in players both capable of shining in his 3-4-2-1 formation and helping United match the top-six target he has been set.
But with funds now limited by their failure to qualify for the Champions League, Shearer fears the worst.
“It’s a mess at Manchester United. Much like Spurs, their season was this competition. We’ve been seeing it for the last two or three months that both clubs needed to win this competition to salvage something from their season.
“Financially, it will hurt them to attract the players they wanted because they’re not Man Utd from 20 years ago, where most players wanted to go there. They’re not that football club anymore; they’re only that club by name.
“They don’t deserve to win the Europa League or be in the Champions League. They’ve been awful all season in every department. The final basically just summed up their season as a whole: slow, terrible in front of the goal, no threat, no energy, and really poor.”
Indeed, our transfer insider Fraser Fletcher has revealed how sources have informed him how Amorim has been left stunned by how big a rebuild task is facing him at Old Trafford, with the Portuguese now very much in self-preservation mode after a disastrous spell in charge.
Man Utd transfer news: Talks confirmed for 74 G/A playmaker; Amad sale worry
Meanwhile, United hope to secure an immediate lift after their crushing Bilbao defeat by pushing ahead with a deal for Rayan Cherki, after a Sky Sports reporter confirmed talks with his agents have been held and having also explained Liverpool’s chances of beating them to his signature.
Any summer signings, though, will have to be part-financed by some big-money sales and now our reporter, Fletcher, has had it confirmed that serious interest from Italy has arisen in star winger Amad and having lifted the lid on why a painful sale may now be possible.
With United needing to raise some serious funds and cut back on their spending, we’ve taken a look at 11 big-name players who could be shown the door as part of a ruthless cull in order to help save the club some £97m.
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