Ruben Amorim addressed the noise around his treatment of the academy at Man United.
Kobbie Mainoo has struggled for minutes in the first team since the arrival of the head coach, and his brother wore a T-shirt with the words ‘Free **Kobbie Mainoo**’ during the 4-4 draw with Bournemouth.
Chido Obi and Harry Amass, both handed debuts by Amorim, also put out social media posts in response to critical comments from the boss, who has stood by his decisions to not trust academy players as much as desired.
“It was not Kobbie that wore the t-shirt, he’s not going to start because of the t-shirt and he’s not going to the bench because of the t-shirt. He’s going to play if we feel he’s the right guy. I’m used to it, I’ve been here for a year. I’m not going to do something to Kobbie because someone on his family is doing something, it’s going to be the same. If he’s the right guy to play, he’ll play.”
“Sometimes strong words is not bad words. Sometimes difficult moments is not the bad things for the kids. We don’t need to be always with accolades in everything, in every situation. We are not helping. That’s why you guys talk about a lot of players nowadays that they speak and they go against the clubs and everything happened because they feel entitlement.
“Then you have legends of the club saying that, if you don’t play, leave because everyone is wrong. No, let’s think about, Let’s stay, let’s fight, let’s It’s overcome. Maybe the manager is wrong. I have that feeling all the time that we need to fight against this feeling.
*“Again, sometimes I’m the first one to say that I’m failing this club inside the pitch. I have that feeling. We are not performing the way we should be, but outside the pitch, I guarantee you I’m not failing to this club. I think it’s something in our club, and we talk about the players sometimes forget about what it means to play for Man United. We, as a club, sometimes forget who we are.*
“That’s the feeling that I have. I understand everything.
“It’s the environment, it’s the moment of the players, the kids, they feel entitled, they feel free to respond the manager with a picture. My office is open, nobody’s coming to talk to me. That is the way we can solve things. I we need to change first as a club, and then everything is going to change.
*“I didn’t say nothing wrong. I just spoke about the luck of playing for Man United. Sometimes you play for Man United and you go see a different realities and you understand that football can be so different and that you are really lucky to be in Man United. That was my idea. But let’s move on.”*