Ruben Amorim has been sacked by Manchester United after 14 months as their head coach. He leaves after a power struggle with the hierarchy over transfer policy, with Amorim demanding his colleagues in the recruitment department “do their job” after Sunday’s draw at Leeds.
His immediate replacement is Darren Fletcher, who takes charge as interim head coach. The Scot, a former United midfielder and the current under-18s coach, will lead the side at Burnley on Wednesday and could remain in charge for Sunday’s FA Cup tie with Brighton.
United are yet to decide whether to appoint a permanent head coach for the remainder of the season or to do so in the summer. The process will be led by Jason Wilcox, the director of football, and Omar Berrada, the chief executive.
If they decide on a temporary coach until the end of the campaign Fletcher would be an option. Another potential candidate is Michael Carrick, who was United’s caretaker manager for three games in 2021 from late November to early December, winning two and drawing the other.
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Regarding permanent replacements, Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner is understood to be of interest. While the Austrian deploys the same 3-4-3 formation at Palace as Amorim did, he has indicated a willingness to play a back four, so is more flexible than the Portuguese proved.
Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola and the unemployed Enzo Maresca are two more candidates who might be considered. Thomas Tuchel came close to replacing Erik ten Hag in summer 2024 but as England manager would hope to still be leading the national team in July at the World Cup, which may be too late for United to appoint him.
Amorim believed United were prepared to back him in the January window should a major signing become available but then said last Friday: “We have no conversation to have any change in the squad.”
His relationship with the director of football, Jason Wilcox, has become strained and Amorim made clear his frustration after the Leeds game,. “I came here to be the manager of Manchester United – not to be the coach of Manchester United,” he said, even though his title was, in a first for the club, head coach rather than manager. “That is clear. I know my name is not Tuchel, Mourinho or 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.”
United acted swiftly on Monday, saying “With Manchester United sitting sixth in the Premier League, the club’s leadership has reluctantly made the decision that it is the right time to make a change. This will give the team the best opportunity of the highest possible Premier League finish. The club would like to thank Ruben for his contribution to the club and wishes him well for the future.”
Amorim is believed to have been informed of the January transfer policy on the authority of Wilcox, who reports to Omar Berrada, the chief executive. United were seemingly reluctant to sanction the signings Amorim wanted because the players he had targeted for his preferred 3-4-3 may not suit the next head coach and the hierarchy lost confidence he was the right long-term solution.
Amorim’s refusal to adapt once the players had grown into his system caused concern because the club believed he agreed to do this when taking charge, with a reactive style also causing disquiet. His downplaying of the academy and underwhelming comments about senior players, including Patrick Dorgu and Benjamin Sesko, were not received well.
Amorim indicated that pundits’ opinions had started to hold more sway than his own within the club when he said after the Leeds match: “If people cannot handle the Gary Nevilles and the criticisms of everything, we need to change the club.”
United’s stance is that Amorim was given 100 per cent backing and removed owing to a lack of progress and evolution. The club are intent the approximately £250 million spent since he was appointed is evidence of the support – the sum making United one of the highest gross spenders in the Premier League since. There is also an insistence that Amorim was in concert with the summer strategy of signing three forwards rather than a midfielder and that the leadership of Berrada and Wilcox is best in class and Amorim or any other head coach cannot outrank them.
Amorim was appointed on November 1st, 2024 on a contract to June 2027, with a club option of an additional year. He oversaw United’s lowest Premier League finish – 15th, with 42 points – last season and lost the Europa League final to Spurs. A net spend last summer of £165 million, including the signings of Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha, has failed to spark a sustained upturn.
United endured a difficult start to this season and were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by the League Two club Grimsby. But United’s co-owner Jim Ratcliffe backed his head coach in October, saying he should be judged after three years in charge. A relative upturn in results has moved them up to sixth in the table – albeit four points above 14th-placed Crystal Palace – and Amorim won 15 of his 46 league games.
Until recently Amorim was wedded to his tactics, built around a back three, which brought success to Sporting in his previous job, saying “not even the pope” could make him deviate, but his approach has been widely questioned throughout his tenure.
The club are searching for their seventh full-time manager or head coach since Alex Ferguson departed in 2013 after 26 and a half years in charge. – Guardian
