Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United gamble ends the only way it ever could | OneFootball

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim must have known he was signing his own death warrant when he castigated the club’s hierarchy in a press conference following Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Leeds United.

When a football manager turns on his bosses, there is only ever one winner. Just four days earlier, Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca had been shown the door after doing precisely the same thing at Stamford Bridge.

Amorim was only still in the job thanks to the stubborn backing of co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. A run of dire results and a 15th-place finish last season — United’s worst-ever Premier League campaign — should have sealed the Portuguese coach’s fate.

Instead, Manchester United doubled down. The club backed Amorim to the tune of £170.7m in the summer transfer window and publicly insisted he would need three years to prove himself a ‘great’ coach.

That faith evaporated on Sunday.

A head-scratching press conference

Amorim openly criticised the club’s transfer policy and, in doing so, effectively issued a ‘back me or sack me’ ultimatum.

“Every department, the scouting department, the sporting director, needs to do their job. I will do mine for 18 months and then we move on,” he said.

“I came here to be the manager of Manchester United – not to be the coach of Manchester United. That is clear. I know my name is not [Thomas] Tuchel, [José] Mourinho or [Antonio] Conte but I’m the manager.

“It’s going to be like this for 18 months or until the board decide to change. I’m not going to quit, I will do my job until another guy is coming here to replace me.”

Amorim expected backing again in the January transfer window, but United’s leadership grew reluctant to sanction the signings the 40-year-old wanted to make his 3-4-3 system work.

Director of sport Jason Wilcox delivered the news. Amorim, already increasingly frustrated, lost the ensuing power struggle. On Monday morning at Carrington, Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada delivered the coup de grâce.

Amorim’s legacy…

Despite a catchy terrace chant and meandering progress on the pitch this season — United currently sit sixth — Amorim’s tenure is unlikely to be remembered fondly.

He leaves Old Trafford with the worst win percentage of any Manchester United manager in the Premier League era: just 32 per cent.

During his 14 months in English football, the only manager to lose more Premier League games than Amorim (19) was Ange Postecoglou (21), who was sacked by both Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest.

According to Opta, Amorim also recorded the worst goals conceded per game ratio (1.53) and the lowest clean sheet rate (15 per cent) of any United manager in the Premier League.

His constant defensive tinkering proved maddening. Amorim used 25 different centre-back partnerships in the league — eight more than any other side over the same period.

Could Marcus Rashford – who has scored seven goals and provided 11 assists on loan at Barcelona this season – now have a future at Manchester United? Image: Opta

According to BBC Sport’s Simon Stone, Amorim did not attend a single academy age-group match, while his ‘brutal dismissal of academy players’ failed to sit well with supporters or within the club.

Yet, despite it all, match-going fans never truly turned. Amorim continued to receive backing from the stands until the end.

In a brief official statement, United said it was ‘the right time’ to make the change ‘to give the team the best opportunity of the highest possible Premier League finish’. There was, notably, no mention of a power struggle.

What next for Manchester United?

Darren Fletcher — a five-time Premier League winner and Champions League victor with United — has been appointed interim head coach and will take charge against Burnley on Wednesday.

The former midfielder steps up from his role as under-18s coach, where he operates with a 4-3-3 system. His two sons, Jack and Tyler, are currently part of United’s injury-hit first-team squad.

The Red Devils are expected to appoint a caretaker manager for the remainder of the season, and it is thought that role will not fall to Fletcher.

Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner leads the betting to become United’s next permanent appointment. The German delivered the FA Cup last season — the first major trophy in Palace’s history — and is comfortable switching between systems, including a back three or five.

Coincidentally, Glasner is currently locked in his own transfer dispute with Palace’s hierarchy.

Enzo Maresca, fresh from his own boardroom clash at Chelsea, is next in the odds, with former England manager and previous Ratcliffe favourite Gareth Southgate completing the top three.

The cycle rolls on

In the end, Amorim’s downfall was less about results and more about control. Manchester United had already gambled heavily on his vision, but once he chose to air his grievances in public, the outcome felt inevitable. Criticism of the hierarchy is rarely met with reform — it is met with replacement.

For United, the cycle rolls on. Another manager gone, another reset promised, another ‘right time’ cited in an effort to draw a line under dysfunction. Amorim is unlikely to be the last coach to discover that the job of restoring Manchester United to former glory is one of the toughest in football.