THEY brought in the second-richest man in Great Britain and the hottest young coach in Europe.
And yet, as the fans mourned the20th anniversary of the Glazer family’stakeover yesterday, are worse than ever.
It is easy to forget, after laid bare United’s desolate soul in his , what a coup it had been to land him in the first place.
How Amorim had been hailed as a cross between a young and Jesus Christ, when he oversaw a 4-1 demolition of in his final home match in charge of just six months ago.
Sporting boasted a 100 per cent record in the Portuguese league and Amorim was a charismatic tactical mastermind who was going to transform .
And what a game-changer it wassupposed to have been when took control of United’s footballing operation just 16 months ago.
This , this local-boy-made-good, was going to lead the Red Devils back to the place he once held in the Forbes Rich List.
Now Ratcliffe’s ruthlessness is regardedas hateful that business acumen has not translated into — and United are two places above the relegation zone.
This rotten, stinking football club minces the reputations of the best of men.
As Amorim seems to have realised, according to his in the wake of Sunday’s 2-0 home defeat by .
Words which left you seriously wondering whether Amorim wants out this summer.
The 40-year-old offered up the ideathat if United could not change things “really fast, we should give our places to different people”;;.
After all, the trend is clear: leave United and start enjoying again.
, instrumental in both Hammers goals, has been voted West Ham’s player of the season by a landslide and is just one of many players to have left and thrived.
is a key figure in table-topping Napoli’s bid for the title, Antony has inspired to the Conference League final and is heading for an final with .
You can list a composite starting XI of players who left United, either permanently or on loan, in the last two years — all of them considered either dead wood or wrong ’uns — which would probably beat Amorim’s team on current form.
The group includes: Henderson (Crystal Palace); Wan-Bissaka (West Ham), Willy Kambwala and (both Villarreal), (PSV Eindhoven); McFred (Napoli andFenerbahce); Antony (Real Betis), Mason Greenwood (Marseille), (Aston Villa), (Nottingham Forest).
United have become a vast footballer recycling centre which buys good players and makes them bad, before selling bad players who become good again.
Like and before him, Amorim has identified a kind of concrete cancer at United which feels incurable once you have been inside the place for any length of time.
Win next week’s ‘Hell Clasico’ final against Tottenham in Bilbao and Amorim will have something to build upon.
qualification would significantly increase the budget, as wellas the desirability of moving to Unitedthis summer.
Lose it and Ratcliffe is in the same position as last summer — wondering whether to back a manager who is failing badly in the Premier League.
Having erroneously handed Ten Hag a new deal and a hefty transfer kitty last year, would he dare do the same again?
Amorim is bright enough to realise this predicament, describing it as “a decisive moment in the history of the club.”;;
Like all good managers, he had the ego to believe he could turn around United.
Once inside, however, he realised thefull scale of that task was beyond him.Perhaps beyond anyone.
Under the ruinous Glazers, so many things have been wrong at United for so long that nobody even knows where to start when it comes to putting things right.
Dan Ashworth, one of the finest sporting directors in the game, was in and out of within months. Amorim may well follow suit.
Amorim was correct to suggest that United’s players have been turning it on for matches on Thursday nights and tossing it off in the Premier League on Sundays.
He was also bang-on when he identified that United players are no longer scaredof losing and that not possessing “that fear”;; is “the most dangerous thing a big clubcan have”;;.
What does the idea of ‘bigness’ actually mean when home defeats in the Premier League have become so routine thateveryone knows they can beat you?
Since the start of last season, United have lost domestic matches at Old Trafford to Brighton, (twice), Manchester City, Newcastle (twice), Bournemouth (twice), Fulham (twice), Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest, Wolvesand West Ham.
When Aston Villa win at Old Trafford on Sunday week it will mean that, of the 16 clubs United have faced in the Premier League both this season and last, only , and won’t have won at Old Trafford.
And only will have failed to beat United either home or away.
United have been consistently terrible in the Premier League for two years now.
Should they fail to win the and should any one of the promoted clubs show any serious ambition, United will be genuine relegation candidates next term.
So we should not blame Amorim if he doesn’t fancy being around to oversee it.
