Tears flow and fury grows as Ruben Amorim ‘abandons’ Sporting Lisbon: Mail Sport finds a city divided as boss bids farewell in his likely final match in charge ahead of Manchester United move

As they climbed the steps of the Campo Grande metro station, there was an air of sadness hanging over everyone in green and white. It quickly became too much for an older gentleman.

“It will indeed be a significant loss,” he told a local reporter before breaking down in tears. Strangers offer hugs.

Arguments break out at the food trucks selling bifana (a classic Portuguese sandwich) over whether Amorim will face boos if he shows his face in the stadium. Earlier in the day, Amorim memorabilia is removed and stored in a supporters’ bar.

One bar manager even orders her bartender to turn off the television so she can no longer hear the word “Manchester” during the live broadcast.

Even without full confirmation of his departure, which was due to kick off here, this League Cup match against Nacional was treated as a day of mourning. Even it was too early for gallows humor when Mail Sport joked that the stress of Manchester United could ruin Amorim’s thick head of hair.

Others were not so magnanimous in their words; furious at a man they now labeled a ‘traitor’.

“Anyone who gives up on a project halfway is not a man, but a rat,” one fan told a friend, as scarves decorated with his face fell from a box onto a nearby stall.

“I hope the man who spent weeks giving the speeches he did doesn’t run away like a rat.”

There were no discounts on the Amorim scarves or flags. €7.50, take it or leave it, we were told. We should have some new ones printed for Sir Matt Busby Way in no time.

This was a day when Amorim wanted to hide, because he quickly realized that the joviality with which he started the day was not shared by others and that he had to give up the cheerful show.

Mobbed in the early morning as he strolled around in a beige cardigan and unkempt white shirt, he smiled charmingly and was undistracted by accounts of his conversations with Ineos supremo Sir Dave Brailsford. The short and sweet interview played out to desperate audiences all over the city.

Sources here familiar with those talks explained that Amorim was under no illusions that he wanted to be the next man to try to turn around Manchester United after they were completed.

He left for the sanctuary of the training ground at 10:05 a.m., shielded from the camera flashes by the bus’s tinted windows. And when he appeared at the stadium to lukewarm applause, it was his head bowed, not the supporters’, as he shuffled onto the pitch sheepishly.

As he paced around his equipment room like a child waiting to be punished by his parents, he gave the impression of a man desperate to end this charade – which few seemed to care about. large stretches of empty seats.

He paused often and took sips from a nearby water bottle, but he wasn’t the animated character many here are used to. With eyes burning a hole in the back of his head, he assumed a crouching, crouching position.

By the time they opened the scoring through Morten Hjulmund early in the second half, there was barely a hint of emotion in sight. The shame that Amorim perhaps wanted to shake off.

“There are several factors that need to be analyzed,” commentator Mario Cagica told Mail Sport, passionately defending the manager.

‘On the one hand, you have to understand Ruben Amorim’s side of the story. He has done a brilliant job at Sporting, arguably the best coach in the club’s last seventy years, and here he has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take over a major European team in a context identical to Sporting’s. : a team that has lost its way and needs direction.

‘It is a good opportunity, a good challenge for Amorim and it is understandable that the coach has accepted the project at this stage because he could run the risk that the opportunity will not arise again so quickly if something goes wrong at Sporting. ‘

For fans, Amorim’s words and defenses ring hollow. It was Monday when Amorim spoke about his pride in coaching Sporting. A determination to guide Sporting – who have won nine of nine games, scored thirty goals and conceded only two – to a third league title. Less than 24 hours later, his bags were packed and he was ready to leave for England. It stings for many.

Andre is a lifelong Sporting fan who is going to this match with his Benfica supporting friend Ruben. The jokes are endless and come from one direction.

“At work I felt like crying,” Andre told Mail Sport. ‘It feels wrong that he is leaving now. I don’t care about this game, I don’t. I want Amorim to stay, we need him to stay.”

Fred, a season ticket holder for more than ten years, first jokes that he doesn’t want to talk because everything about England has ruined his mood.

‘I am incredibly sad. The way he built this team, created this team, we just have to be happy that he got to play a part in this story.”

There is an irony in the fact that if we go back to 2021, when Manchester United were looking for a manager following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Amorim was asked whether he was the right man for the job.

‘United? We are talking about rumours, my future is clear,” he said that day.

‘I don’t know how many names were discussed, I don’t attach much importance to it. If you’ll grant me this opinion, United should take over Ten Hag later this week. It was something that would make me very happy.”

Amorim was then cheeky when Sporting was about to meet Ten Hag’s Ajax.

Now it’s ironic that, almost three years after that fateful response, Amorim United is turning to clean up the mess of its recommendation. Funny how that works out.