You’ll find the entire modern vocabulary of Premier League managerial recruitment in Manchester United’s search for Ruben Amorim.
He is an ‘in-demand young manager’ with a ‘great reputation’ and ‘the brightest of the hugely promising generation of young Portuguese coaches.’ His ‘stock is rising fast.’
Sorry to spoil the party, but he has won the Portuguese league title twice and the Portuguese League Cup three times in four years. When his Sporting Lisbon side played Ajax at home in a Champions League group match in September 2021, his players were blown away in a 5-1 defeat. The manager of the Dutch team that evening? The soon to be popular Erik ten Hag.
We are also currently witnessing Amorim being praised to high heavens for his uncanny talent for ‘developing young players’. I thought this would be every coach’s prerequisite.
Such objections to received wisdom are an inconvenience in times like these. Along with figures showing that Amorim’s win ratio is 71.7 percent, while Ten Hag’s win ratio when United hired him was 73.49 percent. There are few options and everyone looks at the newest kid on the block. The new flavor of the month.
Ruben Amorim is the new flavor of the month and will be the new manager of Man United
Amorim’s winning percentage at Sporting is lower than that of Erik ten Hag at Ajax
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Co decided six months ago that Amorim was not the man for them, but have now performed a U-turn
There is nothing wrong with recruiting relatively unproven foreign managers. Many, from Mauricio Pochettino to Roberto de Zerbi, have raised expectations. But this isn’t the breezy south coast beach scene we’re talking about. It is the raging storm of Manchester United, where managers and their reputations have been routinely devoured over the past eleven years before they boarded the first private jet to leave the country. It is the most difficult and complex crisis management role in world football. A task that requires someone with a material understanding of the white heat, the unyielding control and the relentless impatience.
Instead, United look a lot like a club in a perpetual cycle, going back to a manager they decided wasn’t for them six months ago. Liverpool, Aston Villa and West Ham have also all passed up the opportunity to recruit Amorim, or at least talk to his agents.
Please let’s abandon any pretense about one of the main motivations behind such a change of heart by the geniuses currently running this club. It’s the fear of missing out on Manchester City. United want Amorim because City supposedly wants Amorim. Which, one would have to say, is hardly blue sky thinking.
The idea that the Portuguese have a future at Etihad has been palpable since it was announced that Hugo Viana, the football director with whom he formed a close partnership at Sporting Lisbon, will succeed Txiki Begiristain when the Spaniard steps down. role at City next summer.
Amorim’s original intention was to finish this season with Sporting and explore his options at the end of it, as they might have included a partnership with Viana in Manchester if Pep Guardiola walked away with Begiristain. City’s interest still seemed like an obstacle a week ago. United’s moves to anticipate this included meeting with Amorim during the international break earlier this month for talks attended by at least three of their executives.
United appear to have gone after Amorim as he was seen as a potential replacement for Pep Guardiola at Man City
Carlo Ancelotti is said to have brought peace and cohesion to the club
For City, signing Amorim to replace Guardiola would not represent an overwhelming risk as he would be an important cog in a well-oiled football structure, with the manager asked to adhere to an agreed playing philosophy. It’s a structure that prevents a club from swinging wildly from one system to another simply to suit the coach. This is what progressive, modern supervision of football looks like.
It’s also exactly the kind of structure you thought INEOS would have put in place at United when it hired Omar Berrada as City CEO in January, and Dan Ashworth as Newcastle United’s sporting director in July, along with Jason Wilcox, former director of the City Academy. appointed technical director last spring.
United desperately needs such a structure, even if there is no evidence for it. At Old Trafford, Amorim expects the freedom to introduce his own playing philosophy: a 3-4-3 formation. And he will be reluctant to compromise on that, as Liverpool discovered when they considered him as Jurgen Klopp’s successor this summer and instead opted for Arne Slot some distance away.
United’s selection does not lend itself to playing with three backs and full-backs. They currently don’t have a natural, fit left full-back. And after inflating the average Dutch players for Ten Hag last summer, they also have no money to spend in January.
Graham Potter was never even considered an option by the United hierarchy
Instead, they opted for Amorim, who has never done it outside his home country
Who was the right manager for United? This looks and feels like a club in need of a Carlo Ancelotti figure – as if – to bring sense, calm and cohesion. The place radiates unhappiness to its core, with staff leaving in the latest rounds of layoffs describing a deep sense of hurt at the classless way things were ended.
Graham Potter, who has been absent from the functioning football scene for too long, is far from being considered at United. Gareth Southgate – who would have brought maturity and common sense – would not have fared well in the public eye. Xavi had Spanish ambitions to realize. It would have made more sense to keep Ruud van Nistelrooy in an extended interim role, while INEOS reset and introduced some structure, than this point about inexperience.
It wasn’t meant to be. United just couldn’t wait. Change is once again in the air at a club that seems pathologically incapable of intelligent evolution. The new executives will turn on the roller coaster and continue to crash.
Real Madrid’s Ballon d’Or no-show was classless
It is difficult to remember a more classless act than Real Madrid’s refusal to contest the Ballon d’Or awards on Tuesday evening because the player award had gone to Manchester City’s Rodri rather than Vinicius Junior.
The players said they would not go where they are ‘disrespected’ despite winning the club award.
Sad to see the great club of Alfredo di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Francico Gento and Zinedine Zidane seething in its own bitterness and resentment.
Vinicius Jr. and the rest of the Real Madrid team that didn’t aim for the Ballon d’Or awards were classless
Rodri beat Vinicius to the top prize, which did not go down well with the Brazilian winger
Golf reaches a new audience
There was a time when club golf was a remote and exclusive place, but the turn I took with my grandson last week around the nine-hole, par three course at Styal Golf Club, near us in Cheshire, was a reminder of why the new audience and blooms.
The kid hasn’t started picking up clubs very long ago – this was our third time – and there was a built-in concern for me that he would dig out large stretches of fairway. The welcome and encouragement from the staff could not have been greater.
And the nine shots it took me to clear the fifth bunker, reminiscent of that old Hamlet cigar ad, added significantly to his enthusiasm.
England must recognize Bazball’s shortcomings
It is the reaction in the worst of times that is the true measure of greatness in sports.
Ben Stokes and his team must acknowledge Bazball’s shortcomings after the defeat in Pakistan
Ben Stokes has been showered with plaudits in recent years, but amid Pakistan’s rollicking performances we have witnessed his loss of composure as England’s fielding disintegrated in the second Test, his distraction and aimlessness in the field during the third and a clear reluctance to discuss anything off the field.
Bazball has brought much joy, but the practitioners’ refusal to acknowledge its flaws and shortcomings is its least attractive feature. It smacks of swagger and ego.