Manchester United’s troubles expectedly continue despite Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s current involvement and focus on saving money off the pitch, and following the not entirely unexpected departure of Dutchman Erik ten Hag, their board have now pivoted, as we know, to Portuguese talent in the shape of Ruben Amorim.
The 39 year old former Sporting CP gaffer and 14 capped international midfielder had long been rated in the management game, and his Premier League arrival could not have been better scripted as he took victory over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side in one of his last games, but having arrived in early November his opening nine games have seen four defeats and four wins.
Consistency continues to be their major Achilles Heel on the pitch, and whilst early in his tenure, Amorim appears to have no additional answers when compared to his predecessor who did only lose 35 games in total during his just over two year spell at the club.
As United now prepare for another tough clash on Boxing Day with Vitor Pereira’s new Wolverhampton Wanderers side, the high of beating City in the middle of the month has already evaporated with a League Cup quarter final defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, and few would have anticipated that fans of the Red Devil’s would go into Christmas Day with a 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth hanging over their heads, but that is exactly what happened for the second year running in the Old Trafford fixture.
Spending Christmas in 13th place in the table is yet another new low for the club, as they have not been in the bottom half of the division at this point of the year since the inception of the Premier League, and as already mentioned, their problems are not just on the pitch.
Employees being sacked as a cost saving measure, employee perks being removed, Old Trafford showing its age every time it rains, the long awaited arrival of Dan Ashworth just to see him speedily depart and even a mid-season ticket price rise with the removal of concessions have all got fans backs up as well.
With things unlikely to quickly improve off the pitch, Amorim has also seen his side booed off and as he attempted to explain his difficulties, whilst also more than understanding that the fans were ‘tired’ with results going against them, a leak from the roof that saw journalists soaked basically summed up everyone’s feelings – especially as fans later learnt that defender Lisandro Martinez had told the press that he had been ‘angry’ at the performance, and it is not a leap to imagine there is still trouble in the dressing room that also needs to be dealt with.
The remaining games in the month, and then the second half of the year will be another interesting time at the club – particularly for neutrals.