“I’m here to be a manager, not simply a coach,” the Portuguese coach said yesterday. And this morning he was killed. Team Assistant Fletcher for now
Ruben Amorim is no longer Manchester United manager. “With the team in sixth place in the table, the club has reluctantly taken the decision to make a change, believing that this is the best time to do so. This will give the team the opportunity to end the Premier League season in the best possible position,” the club announced in a statement released at 11.08am Italian time. The team, which plays at Burnley in the 21st round of the Premier League on Wednesday, goes to Darren Fletcher for now and the choice of a new permanent manager could be postponed until the summer. Behind the diplomatic language of the official press releases, however, there is the reality of a sensational rupture between Amorim and the United management, played out in public and with the contours of drama, in perfect Red Devils style after Sir Alex Ferguson, a decade in which the trophies won are far fewer than the managers who have succeeded one another.
STRAIN
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Amorim made his breakthrough yesterday, after the draw with Leeds. “I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not simply the coach – he told journalists at Elland Road -. I want this point to be clear, and that it is known that this will be the case for the next 18 months or until the management decides to change.” The dig at the management was heavy, so much so that the United hierarchy, led by CEO Omar Berrada and sporting director Jason Wilcox, had already decided last night to sack Amorim, preferring, however, to take a night of reflection before immediately announcing yet another turning point. With those statements, the culmination of a tension that had become public since before Christmas, it was clear that the marriage between Amorim and United could not last. The Portuguese, who in November 2024 was snatched from Sporting where he had established himself as one of the best young coaches in Europe by paying 11 million euros, had reluctantly decided to abandon the 3-4-2-1 on which he had built his successes also because “if we bought the players I need to play in that way we would have to spend a lot of money”. And he also reiterated in the press conference before Leeds that the club could not afford to satisfy him on the transfer market. Despite the results not being up to par, despite the fact that 2024-25 went down as the club’s worst season ever in the Premier League (and worst ever since the relegation of 1973-74), in the end the management decided to remove Amorim for what he said, for a relationship that deteriorated more and more rapidly, under the amazed eyes of the press and fans.
failure
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And so the Amorim era goes to the archives after just 14 months as yet another technical failure after Ferguson, the first official of the Ineos era. An economic failure too, because as foreseen by the contract, United will have to pay the Portuguese’s salary in full until the natural expiration of the agreement, at the end of June 2027. In November 2024 Amorim had been convinced to leave Sporting in the running to get on the United train: it was supposed to represent the turning point, also tactical given that in his career he had always used the 3-4-2-1, not the 4-2-3-1 with which the Red Devils were built. The Portuguese has withstood the too many disappointing results accumulated, the criticism for the lack of flexibility shown by not giving up on a module that was clearly not suited to the players available. Things on the pitch this season were improving slightly, also thanks to the 230 million euros spent on the transfer market to redo the attack, to the season without cups which means more time to train and absorb a new philosophy. Behind the scenes, however, the situation deteriorated quickly, with Amorim not having appreciated some of the club’s choices on the transfer market (a case in point, the young goalkeeper Senn Lammens preferred to Emi Martinez, which the coach had specifically requested) and the distance between him and the club becoming increasingly greater. The final straw for Amorim was when, before Christmas, the management insisted on a change of formation, which he reluctantly complied with. From there, however, his barbs became increasingly heavier, more and more targeted. Until the outburst in Leeds, the last straw for the club. His 14 months at the Red Devils remain unfinished, a wind of change that instead of bringing improvements has worsened the situation. In true United style: with lots of talk, lots of smoke and no roast.
