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You’ll find all the modern vocabulary of Premier League managerial recruitment revolving around Manchester United’s pursuit of Ruben Amorim.
He is a “in-demand young coach” with a “stellar reputation” and “the brightest of the hugely promising generation of young Portuguese coaches.” Its “values are rising rapidly.”
Sorry to ruin this party, but he actually won the Portuguese league title twice in four years and the Portuguese League Cup three times. When his team, Sporting Lisbon, faced Ajax at home in a Champions League group stage match in September 2021, his players were impressed with a 5-1 defeat. The coach of the Dutch team that night? The wanted future Erik ten Hag.
We are also currently witnessing Amorim being praised to the heavens for his uncanny ability to “develop young players.” Which I rather thought was the prerequisite of any coach.
Such objections to received wisdom are inconvenient at times like this. Along with numbers showing that Amorim’s win rate is 71.7 percent, while Ten Hag’s win rate when United signed him was 73.49 percent. The options are few and everyone is looking at the latest kid on the block. The new flavor of the month.
Rubén Amorim is the novelty of the month and will be the new coach of Man United
Amorim’s winning percentage at Sporting is lower than Erik ten Hag’s at Ajax
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and company decided six months ago that Amorim was not the right man for them, but now they have done a U-turn.
There is nothing wrong with hiring relatively untested foreign managers. Many, from Mauricio Pochettino to Roberto de Zerbi, have subverted expectations. But we’re not talking about a windy beach scene on the south coast. It is the raging storm of Manchester United, where managers and their reputations have been devoured entirely for the last 11 years, before getting on the first private jet to leave the place. It is the most difficult and complex crisis management function in world football. A task that demands someone with a material understanding of white heat, unyielding scrutiny, and relentless impatience.
Instead, United look a lot like a club stuck in a continuous loop, returning to a manager they decided six months ago was not for them. Liverpool, Aston Villa and West Ham have also passed up the opportunity to sign Amorim, or at least speak to their agents.
Please let us dispense with 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 want Amorim. Which, it should be said, is not blue-sky thinking.
The idea that the Portuguese has a future at the Etihad has been tangible since it was announced that Hugo Viana, sporting director with whom he maintains a close collaboration at Sporting Lisbon, will succeed Txiki Begiristain when the Spaniard leaves office. role at City next summer.
Amorim’s original intention had been to finish this season at Sporting and examine his options at the end of it, as they could have included joining Viana in Manchester, should Pep Guardiola leave with Begiristain. City’s interest still seemed like an obstacle just a week ago. United’s measures to prevent that included meeting with Amorim during the international break earlier this month, for talks in which at least three of its executives were present.
United appear to have gone after Amorim as he was seen as a possible replacement for Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
Carlo Ancelotti would have brought tranquility and coherence to the club
For City, hiring Amorim to replace Guardiola would not represent an overwhelming risk, because he would be an important cog in a well-oiled football structure, where the manager is asked to be consistent with an agreed playing philosophy. It is a structure that protects the club from swinging wildly from one system to another, simply to suit the coach. This is what the progressive executive oversight of modern football looks like.
It is also precisely the kind of structure you imagined INEOS would have put in place at United when it hired Omar Berrada as City chief executive in January and Dan Ashworth as Newcastle United sporting director in July, with Jason Wilcox the former director of City’s academy. arriving as technical director last spring.
United desperately needs such a structure, although there is no evidence it exists. At Old Trafford, Amorim will have 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 opted for Arne Slot, by some margin.
United’s squad does not lend itself to playing with three defenders and full-backs. They currently do not have a natural and fit left back. And having wasted the bench of average Dutch players for Ten Hag last summer, they have no money to spend in January either.
Graham Potter was never even considered an option by the United hierarchy
Instead, they opted for Amorim, who has never managed to leave his homeland.
Who was the right manager for United? This looks and feels like a club that needs a Carlo Ancelotti figure, as it were, to instill meaning, calm and coherence. The place oozes unhappiness at its core, and support staff leaving in the latest rounds of layoffs describe a deep sense of grief at the classless way things have ended.
Graham Potter, out of a functional football environment for too long, has not been considered by United. Gareth Southgate, who would have brought maturity and common sense, would not have been well received in the court of public opinion. Xavi had Spanish ambitions to fulfill. Keeping Ruud van Nistelrooy in an extended interim capacity, while INEOS rebooted and put some structure in place, would have made more sense than this gamble on inexperience.
It wasn’t like that. United simply couldn’t wait. Change is once again in the air in a club that seems pathologically incapable of intelligent evolution. The new executives will turn on the roller coaster and continue crashing.
Real Madrid’s absence from the Ballon d’Or was classless
It is difficult to remember an act with less class than Real Madrid’s refusal to appear at the Ballon d’Or presentation on Tuesday night because the player’s award had gone to Manchester City’s Rodri, instead of Vinicius Junior.
The players said they would not go where they are “not respected”, despite winning the club’s award.
It is sad to see the great club of Alfredo di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Francico Gento and Zinedine Zidane, seething in its own bitterness and resentment.
That Vinicius Jr and the rest of the Real Madrid squad did not attend the Ballon d’Or was a lack of class
Rodri beat Vinicius and took the biggest prize, but the Brazilian winger did not take it well
Golf reaches new audiences
There was a time when club golf was remote and exclusive, but the turn I took with my grandson last week on the nine-hole, par-three course at Styal Golf Club, near us in Cheshire, was a reminder of why it has found new audiences and thrives.
The guy only recently started picking up sticks (this was our third time) and for me, there has been an inherent concern that he might dig up large chunks of fairway. The welcome and encouragement from the staff could not have been greater.
And the nine shots it took to get out of the bunker in the fifth, reminiscent of that old Hamlet cigarette ad, added considerably to his enthusiasm.
England must recognize Bazball’s flaws
The response in the worst moments is the true measure of the sport’s greatness.
Ben Stokes and his team must recognize Bazball’s flaws after defeat in Pakistan
Ben Stokes has been heaped with praise in recent years, yet amid the disjointed performances in Pakistan, we have witnessed his loss of cool when England’s fielding unraveled in the second Test, his distraction and lack of direction in the field during the third and a clear reluctance to discuss anything off the field.
Bazball has brought much joy, but its practitioners’ refusal to acknowledge flaws and failures is its least attractive feature. It smacks of arrogance and ego.