The 39-year-old got fallen giants Sporting CP back on track, but turning United's fortunes around will be a much tougher proposition
Ruben Amorim never played in the Premier League, but ever since leading Sporting CP to the Portuguese league title in 2021, it has felt like a matter of time before he ended up there. Whenever an English club of any stature has been on the lookout for a new manager, his name has never been far away from the list of candidates. And after being linked with Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and West Ham, the Portuguese has agreed to take over Manchester United and now has the chance to show why he has received so much hype. Well, when he is finally able to begin work in late November.
He has been rewarded for biding his time and rejecting previous offers, landing the biggest job in English football. But it is also arguably the hardest. Many mangers with far more prestigious CVs than Amorim have been chewed up and spat out, incapable of stopping the rot that has set in ever since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. Just look at Amorim's role model Jose Mourinho, the larger than life Louis van Gaal or Erik ten Hag, who was one of the top coaches in Europe when he took the poisoned chalice and stepped into the Old Trafford dugout.
The 39-year-old, who will be the youngest manager United have had since Wilf McGuinness in 1969, has already restored one creaking football institution to greatness, winning two league titles with Sporting – including their first in 19 years – plus two League Cups. He brings fresh ideas and a clear vision, a recognisable 3-4-3 formation and a reputation for overseeing blistering attacking football and goals aplenty.
But he will also have to deliver quickly, as his new employers have spent £8.3 million ($10.8m) to release him from his contract at Sporting, only four months after backing Ten Hag despite all the warning signs. GOAL breaks down the winners and losers as a new era is set to begin at Old Trafford…
Getty Images SportWINNER: Bruno Fernandes
Bruno Fernandes paid tribute to Ten Hag just after he was sacked, saying: "I appreciate the trust and the moments we shared together." He had plenty of reasons to be grateful to the manager, who stripped Harry Maguire of the captaincy to give Fernandes the armband and let him play almost every game, as well as delivering the only two trophies of the Portuguese's four-year spell at the club. On the other hand, Fernandes had to carry the team on his back far too often and was left increasingly frustrated with the team's results.
The midfielder, then, is likely to be excited about Amorim's arrival, and not just because his new boss is Portuguese and worked wonders for his beloved former club Sporting. Earlier this year Fernandes expressed confidence that Amorim would be a success in one of Europe's top five leagues, saying: "He has everything to take the next step. He is prepared for the next leap."
The coach's excellent track record should lift Fernandes' hopes of enjoying his last few years at United, having recently signed a new contract until 2027. United's No.8 galvanised the club when he joined from Sporting in 2020 and propelled them to successive top-three finishes. But his spell at Old Trafford has been thoroughly frustrating on the whole, yielding just one FA Cup and one Carabao Cup while being on the wrong end of numerous brutal thrashings, many of which he has been unfairly held responsible for.
AdvertisementGettyLOSER: Sir Jim Ratcliffe
"INEOS never wants to be the dumb money in town, never," Sir Jim Ratcliffe told back in 2019, long before he had even considered buying his minority stake in the club. "They [United] are in quite a big pickle as a business. They haven't got the manager selection right, haven't bought well. They have been the dumb money, which you see with players like Fred. United have spent an immense amount since [Sir Alex] Ferguson left and been poor, to put it mildly. Shockingly poor, to be honest."
Ratcliffe's scathing comments still apply to the club five years on, but now it is the INEOS chief and billionaire who is burning the money. Sacking Ten Hag and replacing him with Amorim is set to cost United in the region of £30m ($39m) when you consider the compensation paid to the Dutchman (£13.5m), the cost of paying the new boss's release clause (£8.3m), plus his annual salary (£6.8m). It is equivalent to the amount United hoped to save when they made 250 employees redundant this summer, causing misery to people who have served the club for so many years.
Amorim may turn out to be an excellent hire and vindicate the United hierarchy's decision. But even if he does, he would have been in a far stronger position had he taken over the club last summer and had a pre-season under his belt, rather than being parachuted in with the team as close to the relegation zone as they are entering the top four, and having to wait three weeks before he can get started.
United may have made a glorious start to Ruud van Nistelrooy's interim spell by destroying Leicester City in the Carabao Cup, but they will still feel in a state of limbo in their next three more games – against Chelsea and Leicester in the Premier League, and PAOK in the Europa League – before having to adapt to yet another new coach. The upheaval just confirms the sense of chaos that remains around United, when Ratcliffe and INEOS had promised to promote a "best in class" culture.
GettyWINNER: Manuel Ugarte
Tough-tackling Manuel Ugarte was signed to inject some power and energy into United's ageing and lethargic midfield. However, Ten Hag did not believe he was worth picking in most games. The manager claimed that Ugarte needed some time to be integrated into the squad before he could be properly unleashed, saying "I'm not Harry Potter". But as the weeks went by, he continued to overlook the £42m ($54m) recruit, handing him just one Premier League start, in the atrocious 3-0 defeat at home to Tottenham.
Ugarte was bafflingly left on the bench against Porto when the team were crying out for a ball-winner after throwing away their 2-0 lead, and he was also discarded throughout Ten Hag's last game in charge at West Ham, despite impressing at Fenerbahce. He showed what he can offer against Leicester and should be even more excited about Amorim's imminent arrival. He played under the coach at Sporting for two seasons, missing just three league games in his second campaign as his performances persuaded Paris Saint-Germain to part with €60m (£52m/$64m) to bring him to France.
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Getty LOSER: Ajax old boys
Ten Hag's penchant for signing players that he used to coach at Ajax was a running joke for the entirety of his tenure. In his first summer in charge, he urged United to sign Lisandro Martinez and Antony, at great cost. Twelve months later, when he decided that David de Gea was no longer suitable to the type of football he wanted to play, he turned to another former charge in Andre Onana. The joke continued even after United's new sporting director Dan Ashworth was brought in as Matthjis de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui were signed, taking the total number of Ten Hag's former Ajax players in the United squad to five, at a combined cost of £250m ($324m).
The manager's continued faith in Antony, particularly at the expense of the excellent Amad Diallo, led to the perception that Ten Hag had favourites and did not always pick his starting XI on merit. That safety net has, howeve, now gone. Amorim is unlikely to show the same patience with Antony and he is going to demand a lot more from De Ligt and Martinez, as his system requires the centre-backs to step into midfield. Mazraoui, meanwhile, will have to get used to playing as a wing-back.