1 month ago
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RUBEN AMORIM has been backed by Jamie Carragher to hit the ground running at Manchester United.
However, the Liverpool legend has warned his true test will come after 18 months in the job.
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GettyWriting in his column for The Telegraph, Carragher explained how each manager since Louis van Gaal managed to improve the situation they immediately inherited.
Van Gaal managed to win the FA Cup, Jose Mourinho won the League Cup and Europa League, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer oversaw the only back-to-back top four league finishes for the club since Sir Alex Ferguson, and Erik ten Hag won both the League Cup and FA Cup.
Winning trophies is a common theme at United, given the resources and stature of club, regardless of their struggles over the past decade.
Nevertheless, it is step two of the plan to create a team worthy of winning the title that has seen the list of Amorim’s predecessors fail.
Carragher, 46, said: “Amorim will undoubtedly generate a short-term, feel-good factor, too.
“New United managers are welcomed like a breath of fresh air and there is not a lot of work needed to make the team massively improve very quickly.
“One of the reasons the United job is so alluring right now is because every top coach working in Europe will have been watching their games for the past 15 months and believed they could organise the same set of players to perform much better.
“There is talent there with no evidence of world-class coaching to get the most from them.
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“Amorim’s real challenge will be in 18 months’ time – just as it was for those who left Old Trafford believing they needed more time and patience to get it right.
“That is when clearer assessments will be made as to whether he is creating a side that has the consistency to actually win the title and Champions League.
“That is the currency United managers must deal in – the standard against which Manchester United will and must always be judged.”
In a meeting with club staff in September, United CEO Omar Berrada outlined an aim for the club to win the title by 2028, the club’s 150th birthday.
Only time will tell whether outgoing Sporting CP boss Amorim – dubbed the Special One 2.0 – is the right coach to achieve that objective.
The 39-year-old had previously been linked with replacing Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool before they appointed Arne Slot, while he had also been linked with Bayern Munich, Barcelona and West Ham.
But Carragher believes one of the reasons Amorim did not get the Reds job in the end was down to his tactics.
He said: “Amorim faces is that the players the Dutchman (Ten Hag) signed were brought in to execute his plans and may not be suited to the system the new manager played at Sporting Lisbon.
Ruben Amorim is ‘Mourinho 2.0’ who turned Sporting from ‘walking dead’ into Portuguese champs… he can revive Man Utd
WHEN Ruben Amorim took charge of Sporting Lisbon in March 2020, one club official compared their situation to the “walking dead”, writes Jordan Davies.
Optimism and hope was at an all-time low.
But the Amorim-effect was almost instantaneous, guiding the Portuguese sleeping giants to their first league title for 19 years in 2020/21, losing just once and only conceding 20 goals.
Since then, Sporting have lifted another league title in 2023/24 – as well as two League Cups – and currently sit top with nine wins from nine this term.
He may be young, but Amorim already has an eye for rebuilding and revitalising fallen super powers with his infectious charisma and intense tactical philosophy that hardly ever wavers.
The “walking dead” at Manchester United must be praying for a similar sort of revival.
And they may just get it from one of the most talented young coaches on the continent – a man accustomed to breathing new life back into crumbling institutions such as Old Trafford.
Amorim has spent the last decade dreaming of one day gracing England’s Premier League, such was his admiration for an ex-United boss in Jose Mourinho growing up.
Often nicknamed ‘Mourinho 2.0’, Amorim spent a week with his coaching idol in an internship capacity at United’s Carrington training base in 2018, going on to cite him as his “reference point”.
United should not be expecting a mini-Mourinho, as Amorim said himself: “Mourinho is one of a kind. There won’t be another Mourinho. Mourinho is unique.”
And yet, you cannot help but compare the two.
For all the mismanagement in the Old Trafford hot seats over the years, this would be a real get – finally a slap in the face United’s Prem rivals have no answer for.
“Amorim is one of the current generations of coaches who play three centre-halves – Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso and Inter Milan’s Simone Inzaghi are the same.
“My suspicion is that one of the reasons Liverpool favoured Slot over Amorim last summer is because the Dutchman prefers the more traditional four at the back, so the transition was easier for the squad he inherited.
“Under Jurgen Klopp, the style of the first team was mirrored down to academy level to ensure those who made the step up were familiar with the playing patterns.
“Did Ashworth and Wilcox consider the change in style from Ten Hag to Amorim a potential problem at United?
“Or have they reached a point where it had to be a secondary concern as they want to give the right man a blank canvas to start afresh, regardless of the profile of players at his immediate disposal?
“On the positive side, critics argued with some justification it was never entirely clear what Ten Hag’s style was supposed to be, so, however Amorim chooses to play, it will be distinguishable.”
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THIS is a mid-table squad at an underachieving club, with a lot of unwanted players on big money.
And Ratcliffe is an instinctive cost-cutter who may not pay top dollar to the next manager.
If this club wasn’t called ‘Manchester United’, it wouldn’t be an especially desirable job.
The good news for United is that their new sporting director, Dan Ashworth, is a very decent judge of a manager.
He has been instrumental in three previous managerial appointments — Gareth Southgate for England, Graham Potter for Brighton and Eddie Howe for Newcastle.
None were wildly popular at the time, all were conspicuous successes.
Interestingly, Ashworth’s No 1 choice for the Newcastle job was Unai Emery, who turned him down to stay at Villarreal but has since proved that judgment right by excelling at Aston Villa.
And the Spaniard would be an excellent fit for United — yet there is next to no chance that he would abandon Villa’s Champions League campaign to take the Old Trafford job, not least because he isn’t a stark raving madman.
Howe would be another good candidate to succeed Ten Hag but, although he has become frustrated on Tyneside, the Saudis would surely not allow Ratcliffe to poach Howe, as they reluctantly did with Ashworth.
Potter is available but his Chelsea experience and lack of charisma would make him a tough sell.
Which brings us to Southgate, who remains close with Ashworth and is an excellent man-manager who was seriously considered by United last spring.
Yet, despite having led England to two of their three major finals, Southgate’s reputation for over-caution was only enhanced during the Euros.
Mauricio Pochettino, passed over twice by United, is out of the equation having taken the United States job.
Thomas Tuchel would also have been a popular and gettable option – but England got in there first.
Likewise, Roberto De Zerbi, now at Marseille after his brief Brighton stint sparkled then fizzled out.
Kieran McKenna — a gifted former United coach who has won back-to-back promotions with Ipswich Town — is an intriguing candidate but the imminent vacancy may come a year or so too soon.
Marco Silva, the extremely under-rated Fulham boss, has been on United’s radar and should not be discounted.
Sporting Lisbon’s Ruben Amorim, last season’s ‘next big thing’, was passed over by West Ham as well as Liverpool this summer and is not an easy man to pin down.
Zinedine Zidane, who has taken over from Alan Curbishley as a 20-1 shot for every Premier League job, is a ‘figurehead’ manager and not an Ashworth type.
Ruud van Nistelrooy, the former United goal machine who joined Ten Hag’s coaching team in the summer is the bookies’ favourite. Simply because he’s in the building and he’s Dutch.
So, yes, getting rid of Ten Hag is the easy part.
Carragher also raised the point that a strong personality is needed to survive the atmosphere at the club, or else it will swallow them.
He added: “Aside from the coaching talent, you need a strong personality to thrive at a club such as United – the capacity to impose authority in an environment where the players are increasingly listening to the voices of their representatives or ‘entourage’ as much as the management staff.
“Whenever a new manager takes over a failing side, it is a common response to anticipate a mass clear-out – as if the squad is lined up like a firing squad awaiting to see who survives the cut.
“That is always a huge over-reaction.
“Nothing is ever that bad at a club of United’s stature, so forget any idea of eight or nine of the current preferred starting XI being dumped at the earliest opportunity.
“That rarely needs to happen for an instant uplift.”
Ruben Amorim leaves Sporting on a high
By Charlie Wyett
RUBEN AMORIM would have preferred to leave Lisbon in a blaze of glory after winning a third Primeira Liga title.
Yet football does not work like that. And in what was surely his final game before taking charge of Manchester United, Amorim prepared to say his goodbyes at a half-empty Estadio Jose Alvalade in a League Cup quarter-final against Nacional.
Sporting won 3-1 thanks to second-half goals by captain Morten Hjulmand and Viktor Gyokeres, who scored two.
Luis Esteves pulled back for Madeira-based Nacional.
The stadium will be a good deal more lively on Tuesday when Manchester City are here for a Champions League match — although Amorim should by then have his feet firmly under his desk at Old Trafford.
Liverpool and Aston Villa were both interested in Europe’s most sought-after coach. Even City could have been a possible destination post-Pep Guardiola.
Yet the United job is one Amorim, 39, could not turn down — even if not everyone saw it that way at Sporting last night.
There is clearly a huge split in the Portuguese club’s fan base over their coach leaving at this stage of the season with many believing he should have seen the job through.
Yet Amorim, along with the three-man coaching team who are expected to follow him, leaves a club in a much better state than when he arrived here in 2020.
Inside the stadium, there was applause — albeit muted — when his name was read out before the game along with the line-ups.
And there did not appear to be any jeers when Amorim shuffled out from the tunnel awkwardly towards the dugout.
So, while his departure is hard to take for some, none of the fans will forget his legacy.
This is a club which is back as the dominant force in Portugal. Even this term, Sporting have won their first nine league games, scoring 30 goals and conceding just two.
They are also eighth in the Champions League table, which is one hell of an effort.
In contrast, Lisbon was not exactly hit by League Cup fever last night.
Amorim made lots of changes, which saw Sporting’s star man Gyokeres, the former Coventry striker, start on the bench.
There was, however, a first appearance in six weeks for former Tottenham winger Marcus Edwards.
He is certainly one player who has been transformed by Amorim since arriving at the club from Vitoria in 2022 and will be sorry to see the coach leave.
While he changed his team, Amorim stuck with his tried and trusted formation of a back three.
It will certainly be something Manchester United’s fans will have to get used to over the coming months.
But looking at the Premier League table, none of them will be complaining about the change.
Carragher concluded that if Amorim can be the first United manager since Ferguson to survive into a third-year in the job, then it is likely that Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos have found the right coach.
The two-time Portuguese league winner could take over at United during the next international break.
Ineos chief Sir Dave Brailsford hinted that a deal was completed by telling fans outside Old Trafford “it’s done” when asked about Amorim.
Amorim himself appears to have confirmed the move as well.
Speaking ahead of today’s clash with Estrela Amadora, he said: “I know it’s difficult for everyone, but at the end of the game we’ll address it.
“I don’t think the president forced me to leave immediately. He’s defending the club’s rights and I’m not getting involved in that, I would never do that.
“I think that at the end of the game everyone will be very clear. The fans may like it or not, but everything will be settled. We’re adults and things happen sometimes.
“We really want to win this game, we really need to win. And at the end of the game we’ll address that issue. It’s difficult to focus on the games, but I’m managing to do so more.
“The soap opera is coming to an end, let’s say. The fact that I can’t be so clear creates a lot of difficulty for me.”
United will pay the £8.3million release clause to get him out of his current contract at Sporting – plus an extra £4.1m for his loyal backroom staff.
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