But just one day later, following defeat at Sunderland, he went on a tirade against the board which completely contradicted his claim as he lashed out over the sale of Guehi to Manchester City. He said: "I feel we are being abandoned completely. I can't blame any player. They did everything they could and this has been going on for weeks and months now. We have 12, 13 players from the squad available and we feel no support. The worst thing is selling our captain one day before playing a Premier League game.
"We are preparing, it's the first (full) week we are training since September, and then we are selling our captain one day before a game. So I have no understanding of this. I have always kept my mouth (shut), but I can't because I have to defend these players, because it was the 35th game today. Yes we get under pressure here and we are unlucky. But again, you can't react, we can't help them, it makes it really tough."
His outburst was reminiscent of Amorim's verbal assault just two weeks earlier at Elland Road which was the final straw for United's board and sealed his dismissal. The Portuguese had fallen out with director of football Jason Wilcox two days earlier after his formation was questioned, with it also being reported that he had been told that he was not going to get any support in the January transfer window.
Amorim's repeated line that he "came here to be the manager, not the coach" implied he had also disagreed with the club's transfer decisions, such as going over his head to sign Senne Lammens instead of Emi Martinez.