So Premier League heavyweights Manchester United have appointed their tenth head coach since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, and the weight of expectation on the shoulders of Ruben Amorim is quite something.
The 39-year-old will leave Sporting Lisbon and take over at Old Trafford officially on the 11th November and he will be tasked with returning the glory days to this proud old club as soon as possible. It’s one of the biggest jobs in sport but Amorim’s new club is not in a good place at the moment and the Portuguese boss has his work cut out. Since the departure of Ferguson, the club has amassed a paltry total of five trophies in 11 campaigns. Two FA Cups, two Carabao Cups and a Europa League title is the type of haul a top-four hopeful would achieve and, after almost two decades of dominance that is hard for United fans to take.
The club has appointed some big names over the past decade, including Louis Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho, but nobody has achieved more than the last incumbent, Erik Ten Haag, who won two cups. But after an eighth-placed finish last term and a poor set of Premier League 2024 results this time around the Dutchman was potted, following a damaging defeat away to West Ham United; and the board have settled on Amorim to hopefully lift the club out of the malaise that the shadow of the mega-successful Manchester City has cast.
The Premier League 2024 betting odds say he can forget the league this year but Amorim has a chance to raise his stock with Red Devils fans even before he takes the reins at Old Trafford because his last match in charge of Sporting is a Champions League tie with Manchester City on Tuesday night. And he made it pretty clear he won’t be pushed around by the UK media when he refused to speak English in his pre-match conference, instead, Amorim insisted on speaking his native Portuguese. That stance will resonate with fans who remember how Sir Alex played the press, even banning the BBC from Old Trafford after the English national broadcaster made allegations against his son in a TV documentary.
Amorim takes over a club at a low ebb after Manchester United’s home game against Chelsea at the weekend ended in an uninspiring 1-1 draw and he certainly needs some time to mould a winning side to his liking. Former Red Devils legend Roy Keane, now a TV pundit in the UK, said the team was ‘average at everything’ and ‘average’ is not something Amorim is aiming for. He has penned a deal to take him to 2027 so he will be keen to get to work as soon as possible.
Manchester City have recently been linked with the Sporting boss who has won two Portuguese Primera Division titles; while Liverpool, Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munch were all linked during the summer while they made their new appointments. And rather than wait for Pep Guardiola to leave the Etihad, Amorim chose to take up the Premier challenge right now; in an arguably lower pressure situation. As an up-and-coming manager, he fits the profile of a young Alex Ferguson back in the 1980s or his countryman Jose Mourinho who rocked up at Chelsea as the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ in the early 2000s.
Manchester United bosses hope they have unearthed a gem at the right time in his career after his impressive four-year stint at in Lisbon, and Amorim is a man who knows his own mind, consistently saying he will refrain from discussions about referees in the media and he rarely gives interviews outside of his contractual duties. He is keen to emphasise the achievements of his players and has no interest in promoting himself; and that strategy will also play well with the Northerners.
Amorim will bring his own coaching team despite calls from United players to keep interim coach Ruud Van Nistelrooy in the backroom. What right the players have to try to influence their new manager I have no idea after they have squeezed 12 points from their opening ten games to leave them in 13th place, already 13 points behind leaders Liverpool and 11 behind title favourites Manchester City.
My SBOTOP pal James, a die-hard United fan, hopes this is the beginning of a successful new era for the Red Devils and that the new manager can quickly get a tune out of this expensively assembled group of players;.only time will tell, and Amorim needs time to make his mark in the toughest league in the world.
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