blues on high
When managers start talking like Ruben Amorim then there is usually only one outcome: they leave. Sooner or later, and it is usually sooner, they go.
History has taught us that. And we do not even have to go back too far. Just a few days, in fact, with Enzo Maresca’s departure from Chelsea which was largely the result of a power struggle between the club, the way they want to operate and the head coach.
At Manchester United it appears to be more specifically a power struggle between Amorim and director of football Jason Wilcox. In such cases, both do not normally survive. It is more likely to be Wilcox although it could be Amorim.
Modern football dictates that the traditional role of an all-powerful manager is dead. Instead we are in the era of the head coaches. Except some head coaches think they should be managers even if they come from a country where the head coach system is prevalent.
Such as Portugal. Amorim did not have the say at Sporting that he believes he should command at United. There he worked with a sporting director, Hugo Viana, who is now of course at Manchester City in a similar role.
“I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not be the coach of Manchester United,” Amorim declared after the 1-1 draw away to Leeds United.
Except his title is head coach. And he knew the structure and the club and the squad that he was joining and inheriting. Plus, United spent more than £200m in the summer to provide Amorim a goalkeeper and a whole new attack having bought him a wing-back to suit his 3-4-2-1 system last January.
We were told these were the areas that Amorim was prioritising – even though it appeared he needed even more wing-backs and a more athletic central midfield – and he happily spoke about this being correct and the need to score more goals.
Maybe he was toeing the party line. Maybe he is alluding to that nebulous concept of broken promises; that United are not, to borrow Kevin Keegan’s phrase when he was manager of Newcastle United, doing what it said on the brochure.
The manager/head coach debate opened up by Amorim is also reminiscent of what Mauricio Pochettino said having taken Tottenham Hotspur to their first Champions League final in 2019. Pochettino declared his job title should be changed back to head coach because he had no influence over Tottenham’s transfer activity.
Spurs broke their transfer record to sign Tanguy Ndombele – and look how that turned out – but Pochettino stated: “Maybe the club need to change my title description, because my job now is to coach the team. It is not a question for me, it is a question for the club. Maybe the club are going to change my title description.”
Instead, four months later, they changed the manager with Pochettino sacked and José Mourinho hired as the head coach. But he also tired of what he perceived as a lack of control while results dictated that he too was sacked.
It always comes down to a power struggle. Remarkably, Amorim has called out Wilcox. Not by name but by title, stating the sporting director – and the club’s scouting department – need to “do their jobs”.
Interestingly, he added that he is “not going to quit” which represents a shift from what he said after losing the Europa League final last season – to Spurs – when he suggested he would walk away without compensation if he did not feel he could do the job.
Now Amorim has dug his heels in, drawn the battle lines and made it clear that if United are to shift him on then they have to pay up. All the while hinting that he has no plans to stay, at present, beyond his current contract. In his own words: “And that is going to finish in 18 months, and then everyone is going to move on”.
Those are hardly the words of a young coach intent on the long haul, wanting to see through a wholesale rebuild and create a dynasty at United, which were the reasons why he was brought in and why the club believe the pain they have been through, not least in the past year and the “storm” that Amorim hinted at, is all worth it.
Now they have a head coach calling it on with them.
United are used to Amorim’s emotional outbursts. The initial reaction was to be shocked at what he said, then to cringe a little, then to realise this is how he is and it all tends to blow over and calm down.
But what he said after the Leeds game follows on from him voicing his frustrations on Friday at the likelihood of no new signings being added to his squad during the January transfer window.
What did United expect? Did they do their due diligence on Amorim – whose coaching hero is Mourinho – and did they not know that he was headstrong, emotional and absolutely a “philosophy” manager who is religiously wedded to his ways and his system?
Also, why did United let it be known that they had the £65m to trigger the release clause in Antoine Semenyo’s contract at Bournemouth, having failed in a £50m bid for him last summer, and now it appears they are not prepared to find the money for anyone else?
Maybe United will back Amorim. Maybe he will get his way. Maybe, in fact, ultimately, it will be Wilcox who carries the can and he goes.
Maybe it will all calm down and this is just a squall rather than another storm which Amorim will try and quell at his next press conference which comes rather quickly, on Tuesday ahead of the game against Burnley.
History tends to suggest otherwise and it appears increasingly likely that United are heading for a reckoning.
Coaches like Ruben Amorim do not survive such bold ultimatums
Manchester United have grown used to Portuguese’s emotional outbursts but his public power-play after Leeds draw upped the ante