DThe discontent at Manchester United is only lingering these days. Ruben Amorim leaving the club Monday was long-awaited and finally came with a tired sigh. He protested half-heartedly about the recruitment structure after Sunday's draw in Leeds, but even then it seemed little more than a gesture. And now another manager, the seventh since Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013, falls victim to the United meat grinder.
Essentially everyone at United is unhappy. And not miserable in the way Alex Ferguson used to be, with the club essentially fueled by his volcanic rage, but exhausted, frustrated in the realization that things weren't the same, that they were once the biggest football club in the country and now they continually failed to get the wins they needed to lift them to fifth place.
After Sunday's draw with Leeds, Amorim made it clear how unhappy he was – even though it is a modern situation. Premier Leagueit was a flash that required some deciphering.
“I'm going to be the manager of this team, not the coach,” he said. “And it will end in 18 months. And then everyone will move on. That was the deal. It's my job not to be a coach.”
His official title is “head coach”, but it has long been the case that words mean what they say in the Premier League. So what was he even talking about? Was it about control? This is usually the case with managers. Amorim continued: “Every department, scouting department, athletic director has to do their job, and I will do mine for 18 months.”
This suggests his real complaint relates to transfers, echoing rumors of Amorim's fallout with Jason Wilcox, United's director of football.
It may be reasonable for a club to decide that if the person they hired as head coach is no longer ready to coach, there is no point in keeping him, but that decision was not based on one press conference. The signs of progress were very difficult for outsiders to see. At the end of October, United won three matches in a row for the first time under Amorim's leadership – against Sunderland, Liverpool and Brighton. Perhaps then it seemed that some kind of turn had been made. But since then they have won just three of their 11 Premier League games. One of them was in Volki and one was a game against Newcastle in which the way they held a 1-0 lead defied logic.
Amorim, who insisted he would never play anything other than a 3-4-2-1, began using a back four, partly in response to having three at the Africa Cup of Nations. This in itself would not be a problem; There have been many calls for Amorim to be more flexible, to adapt to circumstances, so it would be unfair to criticize him for this. But if he can change, why didn't he do it sooner? What was his fundamentalism? Has he lost faith in his method? What might have seemed like welcome pragmatism only added to the sense of uncertainty.
So what does this mean for United? Over the course of two transfer windows they backed Amorim and his £430m/$580m re-formation of the team, with sales only recouping around £165m/$200m. What are they looking for in a new manager? Someone who will continue the 3-4-2-1 experiment, such as Oliver Glasner, whose contract expires in the summer and who quite clearly upset to Crystal Palace? Or someone with a completely different approach who will need to rebuild the process started by Amorim?
The consequence of Amorim's behavior at the press conference is that there won't be much money to invest – for which, of course, Amorim is at least partly to blame. He eventually took charge of a club that finished eighth, winning the FA Cup, and guided them to 15th place before losing the Europa League final, meaning no Champions League. Prize money has decreased and there is no more income from European football. Revenues have fallen this season because United's form last season was so poor. And United did spend £200m/$270m on three strikers in the summer when one would probably have been enough.
But for now the drift continues. When Erik Ten Hag's United finished eighth in the 2023/24 season, it seemed like a major crisis. Things have gotten so bad since playing on the brink of European qualification began to be seen as United's level. And every season it becomes more and more difficult to return.
