The one simple trick that could’ve won Man Utd the 2025-26 Premier League title | OneFootball

May 21st, 2025.

Manchester United lose for the fourth time that season to the team that finished 17th in the Premier League.

…That team being Tottenham.

…In a European final.

“We have to see, in this moment, I am not going to be here defending myself, it’s not my style,” manager Ruben Amorim tells reporters in his post-match press conference.

“I have nothing to show to the fans, and we say we are going to improve because of this. At this moment, it’s a little bit of faith.

“Like I said before coming here, I am always open. If the board and the fans feel I am not the right guy, I will go in the next days without any conversation about compensation, but I will not quit.

“Again, I am really confident on my job, I will not change nothing in the way I do things.”

May 23rd, 2025.

Antonio Conte’s Napoli seal the Scudetto on the final day of the season.

There were fireworks in Naples and wild scenes of celebration after Scott McTominay’s spectacular bicycle kick helped the Gli Azzurri beat Cagliari 2-0.

But immediately there is speculation over Conte’s future. Unsurprisingly so, given his volatile nature. Not least when paired with the similarly obstinate Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis.

Luciano Spalletti left Napoli after leading them to the Serie A summit in 2022-23, and history likely to repeat itself.

“Never say never,” De Laurentiis tells DAZN, responding to speculation about Conte, amid the title celebrations.

“Coaches have their own character that must be respected and in my view you should never oblige them under iron-clad contracts. Napoli is Napoli, it deserves respect.

“If he wants to put himself at the disposal of the club the way he has done this season, then we say welcome, we are ready to follow him like a great leader.

“Next year, I would be very pleased if he made his mark in the Champions League, which since they modified the format has become even more important.”

Conte himself basked in what he called the “the most unexpected, difficult and stimulating scudetto of my career” but was similarly non-committal when asked about his future.

Widespread reports in the Italian media suggested that he’d walk away if not given major backing in the summer.

That was your window, Jim Ratcliffe.

As the dust settled on the 2024-25 campaign, big decisions were made.

Manchester United’s board didn’t call Amorim’s bluff when he threatened to walk. The Portuguese coach remained in the post and continued to receive Ratcliffe’s support.

Meanwhile, over in Naples, Conte confirmed he wouldn’t be going anywhere.

“Managers and owners meet at the end of every season to review the season, to see how it went and find out whether or not they have the same vision for the future, and the same determination to go after particular objectives,” he told reporters, sitting alongside De Laurentiis.

“That all seems normal to me. It happens at every club.

“There is a contract and seeing as we’re aligned on the vision we have for the club, there’s nothing else to say on the matter. We carry on. We’re serious people, so we’re moving forward.”

And so ended a brief few days in which Manchester United might have conceivably made a change in the dugout and appointed Conte.

“The press, sometimes I don’t understand,” Ratcliffe told The Times’ Business Podcast last October, defending his decision to back Amorim.

“They want overnight success. They think it’s a light switch. You know, you flick a switch and it’s all going to be roses tomorrow.

“You can’t run a club like Manchester United on knee-jerk reactions to some journalist who goes off on one every week.”

The thing about Conte is that appointing him is actually a bit like flicking a switch. He took Juventus from 7th to 1st in his first season. Chelsea from 10th to 1st. The exact same with Napoli. Inter went from 4th to 2nd in his first season and won their first Scudetto in over a decade in his second.

Even at Tottenham, he made an immediate impact. He remains the only coach since Mauricio Pochettino to lead the club to a top-four finish.

Remember that extraordinary meltdown after Spurs drew away to Southampton? They were fourth in the table at the time. They fell to eighth following his departure. Now they sit in the relegation zone.

Conte is a man made for scorched earth. The guy lives for cleaning up a mess. At both Chelsea and Napoli, he inherited strong squads with the muscle memory of winning a title, but had completely imploded before his arrival.

Messes don’t come much bigger than Manchester United last summer. Fifteenth in the Premier League. Trophyless. Out of Europe.

On the one hand, you can understand Ratcliffe wanting the club to escape the sacking cycle they’ve become stuck in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era. He spoke of judging Amorim after three seasons. The ‘best practice’ examples of Mikel Arteta at Arsenal and Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool were cited. Trust the process.

Conte does not offer any of that. He is not a ‘project’ manager. Don’t expect a five-year plan or a ‘holistic approach’ to building a culture.

His combative, outspoken and demanding nature and the inevitably venomous manner of his exits won’t make him especially appealing for a board wanting a company man. You can’t imagine him spouting the LinkedIn high-performance spiel of a Liam Rosenior.

It’s for that reason the Glazers decided against appointing him when he was reportedly among the frontrunners back in 2022. And, again, it was impossible to see how he’d fit into the structure under Jason Wilcox et al last summer.

Therein lies the problem. For all his faults, Conte is a man who comes in and delivers results. He is a proven winner. Serie A, Premier League, wherever. Forget ‘give him time’. Forget needing five or six transfer windows to build the right squad in his image.

Talk about ‘best practice’? By contrast, Arsenal are into their sixth season without silverware under Arteta and suffering a collective mental breakdown as they face the prospect of actually getting over the line. Is that what Manchester United are after? Six years of building?

You look at the lay of the land in the Premier League this season and can’t help but feel Manchester United massively missed a trick by not getting Conte in last summer.

We’re seeing a repeat of Leicester’s 2015-16 season in which all of the traditional powerhouses have failed to convince. Reigning champions Liverpool have fallen off a cliff. Man City are in transition and remains a work in progress. The limitations of the current league leaders are clear to see.

There was a major opportunity there. All the ingredients were in place for a classic Conte title campaign.

You look at a relatively unproven Michael Carrick, averaging around two points per game, and think that surely a coach of Conte’s calibre and experience would have been able to achieve something even better after a full pre-season.

Yes, the Italian’s disastrous record in the Champions League leaves a lot to be desired, and Napoli’s league phase elimination this season was nothing short of a humiliation. But that wouldn’t have been relevant at Old Trafford this season.

Conte has done his best work when he’s had no European distractions and time on the training pitch to drill his players. Chelsea in 2016-17. Napoli last season.

Even this season, with an unenviable injury crisis, Conte’s Napoli briefly reopened the Serie A title race by winning seven of their last 10. It’s surely no coincidence that the uptick happened since they exited Europe.

You might argue that United’s rubbish record with a back three under Amorim is a strong argument against Conte. But he’s no ideologue, dogmatically wedded to one idea of playing. Sure, he’s leaned heavily on a 3-4-2-1 formation from Juventus to Chelsea to Inter, but only when that suits the players at his disposal.

Last season Napoli won the Scudetto predominantly playing in a 4-3-3 and you imagine that he’d have adapted in a similar fashion in Manchester.

In the end, structure beats chaos. Conte would have imposed clarity. It’s what he does best.

Manchester United’s squad was nowhere near as bad as last season’s 15th-place finish suggested, and they’re showing that now under a coach who is simply implementing the basics.

Conte’s trademark automatisms, ruthless selections, and intensity on the touchline could have delivered title-worthy consistency across the campaign.

Conte sets uncompromising standards. He has his weaknesses – managing up, knockout competitions – but give him 38 games against imperfect opposition? Manchester United might just be closing in on No.21 in an alternate reality.