The excitement of a new era at Manchester United was almost palpable, according to one observer. The part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, CEO Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox were full of optimism. What owner isn’t energised by making a coaching appointment, especially their first? It was a chance for Ratcliffe to put his imprint on United after years of drift under the Glazers.
The coach, who had regained the title at Sporting, had youthful vivacity, an admirable track record and emotional intelligence. Ruben Amorim, appointed a year ago this Saturday, was one of the most desired young coaches on the market, which is why Tottenham and Liverpool had also considered him.
United felt they had stolen a march yet even a year ago, among their opponents, there was scepticism at their elation. “Sporting Lisbon had a great time under him and I’m not saying he wasn’t part of their success but Benfica and Porto had their problems, it’s an easy league and Sporting’s title win was overhyped because of special circumstances,” said one highly respected executive who has appointed a number of successful Premier League coaches. “Amorim left and Sporting still won the league last season. Maybe it was the players?”
One year on, it is fair to say the early buoyancy Ratcliffe, Berrada and Wilcox experienced has not been frequently replicated. More often they have looked like three stooges in the directors’ box at Old Trafford, glumly looking down at their protege overseeing another calamity.
And yet after three successive wins, including crucially a first at Anfield against Liverpool for almost 10 years, their faith in Amorim now suddenly feels farsighted. They had always maintained that the lowest points – Grimsby, the Europa League final, both defeats at Brentford, the miserable Christmas run of four successive losses – were staging posts on a longer journey.
“We can’t react every time we lose and we can’t be celebrating like a cup final just because we win,” said one voice at Old Trafford on the recent renaissance of hope. There is acknowledgment that this is a long and difficult journey. The club believe Amorim is the right person to turn around the United oil tanker and there is determination not to go back to the “rinse and repeat” of the past 10 years.
Amorim talks to Kobbie Mainoo before Manchester United are knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Grimsby. Photograph: Chris Radburn/Reuters
That’s why, United say, there was no prospect a month ago that Amorim would have been sacked had they lost to Sunderland on the back of the gutless 3-1 defeat by Brentford.
Ratcliffe compared Amorim’s struggles to Mikel Arteta’s first year at Arsenal and has seemingly promised him three years to turn the club around. There is hope that Anfield will be Amorim’s Mark Robins moment, the iconic FA Cup third-round victory in 1990 in which the striker scored to save Sir Alex Ferguson’s job.
A parallel to current dynamics is that the then chair, Martin Edwards, has always insisted that Ferguson’s job was not on the line that day, partly because the most august member of the board, Sir Bobby Charlton, still supported the Glaswegian and could see he was turning the club around.
Berrada and Wilcox don’t quite have Charlton’s credentials, even if Wilcox is a Premier League winner, but they are Ratcliffe’s eyes and ears in the football world and are true Amorim believers.
Yet there was another member of the executive team who possibly wasn’t as excited to greet Amorim last year. Dan Ashworth, now the FA’s chief football officer, was United’s sporting director when Amorim was appointed. Ashworth left on 8 December. United maintain the two events were unrelated. “Everyone was aligned on Ruben’s appointment, including Dan,” said a United source.
Yet it was the failure of Erik ten Hag and the search for a successor that triggered Ratcliffe’s realisation that Ashworth wasn’t the man he wanted to run his club. Once the board decided Ten Hag couldn’t go on, Ratcliffe wanted a bold plan from Ashworth, according to a source familiar with both sides of the story. Yet Ashworth argued this wasn’t time for a risky appointment, that there was a need to rebuild and reform the culture. Hence his shortlist of Premier League managers such as Eddie Howe and Graham Potter. Other sources suggest Thomas Frank was discussed. United insist Gareth Southgate was never an option, though given his closeness to Ashworth and Sir Dave Brailsford, Ineos’s director of sport, it would have been odd not to have discussed him.
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Ratcliffe, it is said, felt it was an uninspiring list and Howe was an unrealistic target anyway, given how long it had taken to get Ashworth out of Newcastle. Brailsford, said to be the person most likely to speak frankly to Ratcliffe, was very influential at the time, said the source, and Wilcox and Berrada were more fluent in “football corporate speak” than Ashworth.
Harry Maguire leads Manchester United’s celebrations after a victory against Liverpool at Anfield. Photograph: Poppy Townson/MUFC/Manchester United/Getty Images
Amorim had been discussed in the summer of 2024, when United were weighing up whether to stay with Ten Hag after his FA Cup win, though Berrada and Ashworth were on gardening leave then. A separate source close to the figures involved says there was wariness at that stage because of his adherence to 3-4-3. United say this is not the case. “They really, really liked him in the summer,” a United source said.
Rival sporting directors tend to agree that Amorim’s dogma should have dissuaded United. “He [Ruben] has fallen into the trap of thinking that it’s his system and tactics which are the cause of success,” said one. “Managers are egomaniacs but they have to be egomaniacs to stand in front of young men earning so much and hold the room. You have to get players thinking you are a genius. The problem is they then believe that they are.
“Pragmatism is underrated at the top level. If it’s not working, you have to make changes for the short term. When United asked the question: ‘Will you change 3-4-3?’ and he said no, that should have been a red flag.”
United sources insist that is a mischaracterisation of Amorim and it is certainly true there are variations in his 3-4-3, not least the direct approach which did for Liverpool and was a tactical triumph. The question is whether there will be more of those and whether anyone will be writing articles marking Amorim’s second anniversary.
