Manchester United are looking to quickly wrap up a deal agreed in principle to appoint Ruben Amorim as Erik ten Hag’s successor at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils are looking to hire their first permanent manager under Ineos after letting go ten Hag on Monday as it’s been an inauspicious start for United’s co-owners, who now control football operations at Old Trafford.
Ineos have been receiving flak in some quarters after putting their trust in Ten Hag following last season’s eight placed finish – United’s worst in the top flight since 1990. Hopefully with the change in the script they are now making a brave move which offers hope that the ambience will change at Old Trafford?
Amorim would doubtless be a risky proposition as the 39-year-old has never managed outside of Portugal, within at best a domestic league below the Premier League, La Liga and the Bundesliga in terms of quality. However his impeccable work at Sporting will offer fans optimism that he could do something that hasn’t been done by any manager since Sir Alex Ferguson’s unparalleled tenure.
Amorim’s greatest achievement was ending Sporting’s 19-year league title drought in 2021 – a historic success from a young manager who guided the club to 85 points and with just one defeat all season. It banished a near two-decade long ordeal which resulted in another league title three years later.
Undoubtedly, repeating the feat with similar success at United will be a far greater challenge, but Amorim’s ending a long wait for league title success at Sporting will no doubt appeal to the club’s chiefs that he can pull off the same stunt in Manchester.
This is something which United’s greatest-ever manager famously did to an even bigger extent as Ferguson had arrived from Aberdeen and had to wait several years in frustration to end a 26-year hoodoo for a top-flight title in the inaugural Premier League season of 1992/93.
United chief executive Omar Berrada is already mulling a plan to end United’s current drought of 11 years, and still counting, to not extend beyond 2027. Berrada is said to have told staff at the club in September that they want to win the Premier League in 2028 in a three-year plan that would coincide with the Reds’ 150th anniversary.
An ambitious target, decidedly, as United currently sit 14th amid their worst-ever start to a Premier League campaign. Nevertheless, things can change quickly in football, and if Amorim is the chosen replacement for Ten Hag, the hope will be that he can trigger the revolution Old Trafford so badly needs.