Who’d be Manchester United manager, eh? Someone eyeing a delicious compensation package, probably…
It’s all gone sour under current head coach Ruben Amorim, who took on the poisoned chalice last November and boasts a worse win percentage in the Premier League than Graham Potter at West Ham.
The Portuguese reached a sack-worthy new nadir as United were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by League Two opposition.
Amorim is the seventh manager appointed since Sir Alex Ferguson retired as a title winner in 2013. We’ve ranked them all.
7) Ruben Amorim
To be fair to Amorim, he wanted to join at the end of 2024/25 and was given a now-or-never ultimatum from CEO Omar Berrada. But after a full pre-season, over £300million in new signings, and nine months of knowing the players and personalities he’s working with, there’s no excuse for losing to and being outplayed by League Two Grimsby bloody Town.
It’s remarkable to see this club make the same mistake over and over. They gave Erik ten Hag a club-record war chest in his first summer, which didn’t look like an awful idea when United went on to finish third in the Premier League and win the Carabao Cup. He was then heavily backed again in 2023 and when it all went to pot, the club was left with a bunch of players unsuited to Amorim’s system.
System is a keyword in Amorim’s tenure. Not having his players was a constant excuse throughout 24/25, even though a manager deemed viable for the Man United job should be expected to get a tune out of an £800m squad full of international footballers. The whole 3-4-2-1 schtick has been Amorim’s downfall from day one. His stubbornness, unwillingness, or simply put, inability to adapt is what will lose the 40-year-old his job.
When the United hierarchy put their pride to one side and realise he’s not the man for the job, it will cost an absolute fortune, just as it did to bring him from Sporting. That’s a key part of their stubbornness in inevitably sticking with Amorim. They don’t want to look stupid and inept, though that ship might’ve sailed a long time ago.
Amorim’s United look absolutely terrible. An actual defeat on matchday one to Arsenal deceived us into thinking they might be quite good this season after a positive pre-season in which Luke Shaw claimed the Red Devils could win the Premier League. Imagine Adam Smith claiming Bournemouth could win the league. He’d be laughed into the Channel, yet Bournemouth finished a whole six places above Amorim’s side last season.
Finishing 15th with 18 defeats and a -10 goal difference is astonishing. And then Amorim bottled the Europa League final and a chance at £100m and Champions League football. Ultimately, that could’ve been the worst possible outcome, because the embarrassment might’ve been enough for Amorim’s head to explode had they qualified for Europe’s premier competition and met teams like Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in a competitive setting.
That Europa final defeat was supposed to leave United hamstrung this summer, yet they’ve spent over £60m on Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha and over £70m on a striker scared to take a penalty against a League Two team. That sort of backing of a wildly underperforming head coach, who’s shown no sign that he’ll be a success, is astonishing and outright idiotic.
Look at Liverpool, for instance. With Jurgen Klopp, it was clear there was something there and they waited to spend big money on the playing squad — and look at what happened when they did. Then Arne Slot came in, got backed with a £12m back-up winger, won the title at a canter, and has now been backed with a lucrative transfer window. That’s because it’s clear that he’s a good manager. A title-winning manager. Amorim won bugger all and led Manchester United Football Club to fifteenth.
The football is dire, the results are even worse, but yes, everything will be fine after Amorim spends another £100m on a goalkeeper and midfielder.
READ MORE: Ruben Amorim backed into third in Premier League sack race
6) David Moyes
On one hand, you can say Moyes was always destined to fail given the monumental challenge of replacing Ferguson, but he still inherited a Premier League-winning squad and turned them into a group incapable of challenging for Champions League qualification.
The United board put a lot of faith in Ferguson’s recommendation, handing Moyes a whopping six-year contract. He lasted a grand total of 10 months after winning 26 of 51 matches across all competitions, with the reigning champions sat seventh in the Premier League.
Moyes did, at least, beat Wigan Athletic in the Community Shield, but that wasn’t enough to stop him being the club’s first managerial sacking since November 1986.
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5) Ralf Rangnick
Man Utd brought in gegenpressing extraordinaire Rangnick to help steady the ship following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2021/22. His appointment was made with the view of his stepping into a role behind the scenes, where he appeared to be better suited. Ten Hag had other ideas, though, and did not give the thought of working with Rangnick the time of day when he arrived from Ajax in May 2022.
Rangnick’s time at Old Trafford epitomised the colossal mess at the club. He only took the manager job to become a consultant months later, which he probably would have been excellent at, only for him to leave before getting the chance, swiftly becoming Austria manager after entering free agency.
The German spoke well — almost too well at times — saying the sort of thing the Manchester United hierarchy did not want to hear. His “open-heart surgery” claim had a brutal truth to it and did not go down well.
On the pitch, results did not improve following Rangnick’s arrival and United ended up finishing sixth in the league, 13 points off fourth.
4) Louis van Gaal
From his rants in press conferences to throwing himself on the ground in remonstration to the fourth official after an alleged Alexis Sanchez dive, Van Gaal brought light to Our League, and for that, we will forever be grateful.
While the experienced Dutch manager entertained the masses with his antics, his football — which does have an element of importance — left a lot to be desired. He was very pragmatic and adopted the patient, possession-based approach that has served him well throughout his career. That’s the nice way of putting it. More bluntly, it was dull as f**k.
Said style did bring an FA Cup to Old Trafford, the first trophy post-Fergie. And the club’s hierarchy was so thankful to Van Gaal that they decided to sack him straight after the Wembley triumph.
3) Erik ten Hag
Ten Hag should have been sacked at the end of 2023/24 after the club’s worst finish in Premier League history. An unlikely FA Cup final win over Manchester City saved him. The club spoke to a few managers, yet Sir Jim Ratcliffe decided to extend the Dutchman’s contract after he and his minions swallowed his mitigation around injuries.
It proved to be the silly decision we all knew it was at the time. The summer transfer window was filled with promise but none of the new faces impressed and the football did not improve. In fact, you could say it somehow got worse.
Ten Hag won the Carabao Cup in his first campaign, which went along nicely with a top-three finish in the league and an FA Cup final, which his side lost to Man City. His second season was a direct contrast: beating Pep Guardiola’s side at Wembley after shambling their way to eighth in the Premier League.
The 2023/24 Champions League campaign was truly awful, finishing bottom of a group when it seemed harder not to. Their Carabao Cup defence ended painfully when the Red Devils were hammered by Newcastle United — the team they beat in the previous season’s final — at home, and results in the Premier League were mind-bogglingly inconsistent.
Still, on paper, two trophies in two seasons is a fine return. On grass, it was a different story. Ten Hag’s dismissal was inevitable and one of many clear signs that Ratcliffe might not know what he’s doing.
2) Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Say what you want about the man. Take into account all of the semi-final defeats. Do whatever you want, mate. We don’t care. United played their best football post-Fergie under Solskjaer, who was sacked in November 2021 after a harrowing defeat at Watford.
The club legend got the job full-time after a mightily impressive spell as caretaker boss that included an iconic Champions League comeback away to Paris Saint-Germain, to which Rio Ferdinand reacted in a completely normal manner:
Man United might not thank me, but get the contract out, put it on the table, let him sign it, let him write whatever numbers he wants to put on there – given what he’s done since he’s come in – and let him sign the contract and go. Ole’s at the wheel, man – he’s doing his thing. Man United are back!
In fairness, we all egged Man Utd on. He was having a ball at the wheel during his caretaker stint but his permanent spell eventually became a write-off.
Solskjaer did bring the best out of Bruno Fernandes, giving him the freedom to express himself, and the Portuguese thrived as a result. He even made Anthony Martial look like a competent footballer. The comeback wins, counter-attacking football, and incredible 20-minute spurts in games when United would kill the opposition were the highlights of a fun time with the Norwegian at the helm.
1) Jose Mourinho
The Special One got the job after Van Gaal’s sacking and has been the club’s most successful boss since Ferguson retired in 2013. Again, his football was far from incredible to watch, but it provided results in a results business.
His first season saw Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic shine as the Red Devils won the Carabao Cup and Europa League. They might’ve finished sixth in the Premier League, but that was insignificant as Europa glory brought the club Champions League football anyway.
The following season brought two-time Champions League-winning manager Mourinho one of his “greatest” achievements: finishing second in the Premier League, 19 points behind centurions Manchester City.
As it usually does, things went sour in Mourinho’s third season in charge, losing his job in December 2018, which saw Solskjaer take charge.
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