Man Utd: Amorim, Ratcliffe turning point revealed with ‘alarming’ decision, ex-manager ‘regret’ | OneFootball

A new report has revealed the turning point in the relationship between Ruben Amorim and Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

Ratcliffe and Man Utd‘s recruitment team have made a lot of wrong decisions since joining the Premier League giants, with Amorim arguably their biggest mistake at Old Trafford.

Amorim parted ways with Man Utd on Monday morning, wth his exit a disastrous 14 months in which the Premier League side slumped to embarrassing new lows.

His position at Old Trafford became untenable after he publicly hit out at the club over a transfer disagreement, with the head coach also heavily criticised over his refusal to adapt his formation.

Man Utd’s performances improved as Amorim made changes to his system to get the best out of his squad, but he reverted to type soon after to frustrate supporters and pundits.

Amorim was doomed to fail for a while, but The Athletic‘s Laurie Whitwell has broken down the events leading up to last week’s infamous meeting between Amorim and director of football Jason Wilcox.

“When he [Amorim] reverted to his back 3 against Wolves, who are struggling in form, that was an alarming and concerning development. There were conversations had between all the powerbrokers at United,” Whitwell said on the Talk of the Devils podcast.

“It came ahead at the Friday meeting where Wilcox put points to him, one being that players weren’t on the same wavelength as Amorim and Amorim did not react well to that.”

Whitwell has also shed light on when Ratcliffe’s relationship with Amorim began to change.

“Omar Berrarda was a big advocate for Ruben Amorim coming in, Sir Jim Ratcliffe as well. Ratcliffe had a long, good conversation with Amorim early in the process and was backing him throughout, even when Amorim was questioning his own status,” he continued.

“Ratcliffe started having opinions shall we say about United playing a back four and this is when Jason Wilcox became more forceful in his conversations on that basis.

“Stuff then happened in the Friday meeting where they felt they couldn’t come back from it.”

Regarding former interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy, who exited following the arrival of Amorim after a successful stint as interim, Andy Mitten added: “Ruud Van Nistelrooy…there’s some regrets at United that they just let him go. He was very popular.”