Despite doing the double over Manchester United last season, the Hammers head north for tomorrow evening’ s fixture without a great deal of optimism. The fledgling recovery was brought to an abrupt halt against Liverpool on Sunday an the Irons are out of the relegation zone only by virtue of goal difference.
However in the pr- match press conference Manchester United’s Portugese manager and one – time candidate for the Hammers’ manager vacancy Ruben Amorim was quick to tick the box of now-customary ‘mutual manager appreciation’ but perhaps offering just a smidgeon of hope to West Ham fans that the Hammers boss really can create problems for the Red Devils.
Portugese managers go head to head on Thursday evening
Reported by the manchestereveningnews.co.uk, Ruben Amorim praised his West Ham counterpart:
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” I had no doubts he will have success. He’s really experienced, he knows how to work with different squads, understands really well the league. We know it’s going to be tough, he’s really smart preparing the games.”
Nuno, for his part, in his own conference yesterday was equally keen to extend the cordiality to his fellow countryman: (whufc.com)
“Manchester United’s improvement is there for everybody to see.
Ruben and I are both Portuguese, and we’ve met each other many times. Now on Thursday we’re going to be on different sides to each other, but I have a lot of respect for him, and we are companions in the job we do.”
The gloves will come off tomorrow night – not so long ago Amorim’s job was on the line before he pulled the Red Devils out of their trough of poor form. For West Ham’s sake, Nuno needs to get hold of his countryman and find out pretty fast how Amorim achieved the turnaround.