In preparing for his presentation as Manchester United manager, Ruben Amorim has been mindful of an idea that has guided his coaching career so far. That is, if you can’t say something in a single sentence, don’t do it. Work on it, so it’s clear.
That approach has never been more necessary than at Old Trafford, where constant noise and fire have created this fog around one of English football’s great institutions. The team, as much as anything else, could do with some simple clarity.
That is what the players have found in Amorim’s training sessions. They’ve been impressed by the focus of his instructions, as he immerses himself in the drills. It’s only a decade since Amorim was a player, after all. The image so far has been assured.
Amorim has been conscious of that. He could immediately sense the importance of how he comes across when he saw scores of media appear at a Sporting press conference once it became obvious he would be United manager. This was something else and he initially seemed taken aback. There’s no shame in that. When Sir Alex Ferguson first took the job in November 1986, he would sidle up to Bryan Robson in training and just mouth “big club this… big club”.
Amorim’s realisation at that press conference wasn’t quite that, but it wasn’t far off.
The club is of course infinitely bigger now because of Ferguson’s very triumph in taking on that challenge, but that has ironically made it much harder for everyone since. The stature of United poses the first great test of any new manager. They have to understand what the club is; then they have to win.
David Moyes never really managed to do either. On assuming the job in the summer of 2013, he attempted to pre-empt advice about new challenges by comparing everything to Everton. It was a form of self-protection to try and show he was ready. He wasn’t. Staff would explain how United involved a greater scale of issues – for example, how you couldn’t have open training with no security at Bondi Beach – only for Moyes to state that it was fine because he’d seen it at Everton. He hadn’t seen intense scrutiny like this. So many fans descended on Bondi Beach for that ill-fated idea that the United squad had to escape through the back door of a restaurant.
“This isn’t f****** Everton, boss” one popular staff member eventually told Moyes. By the end, the Scot was so stunned by the media glare he was demanding pre-set responses from the comms team to any press questions. “Where’s the answers?” he complained – a phrase that proved a fitting epitaph for his time at the club.
Amorim has already realised this isn’t Sporting. It’s why he wants to have all of his own messages clear, although even that becomes more difficult at United after defeats.
Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho were different because they’d already been in charge of comparably big clubs but that became part of the problem. Both had been at the top so long, they were past their best. This isn’t something that can be said of a prospect like Amorim but one of the first tests for him at United will be applying his footballing philosophy to a higher-level squad.
Some close to Mourinho sensed another issue. When on a US tour in his second spell at Chelsea, the Portuguese made a point of saying that big clubs like United wouldn’t run it the way Chelsea had. This was, of course, just after he felt he should have been appointed United manager following Ferguson’s retirement. When Mourinho finally ascended to that position, in 2016, he went around saying everything at United “was s***”. He said it so often that the training-ground chef once barked back, “How many titles have you won here, then?”
After all, as the much-mocked phrase spouted by the likes of Gary Neville goes, this is Manchester United we’re talking about. What has come before doesn’t matter. As even someone like Mourinho, with two Champions Leagues titles to his name, found out. Amorim has a mere two Primeira Liga titles and that may become an issue if things go badly.
The sheer scale of the club even got to figures like Van Gaal and Mourinho. The former tried to play football more suited to young Ajax players. The latter, meanwhile, went from a manager who didn’t care what anyone said about him to one who obsessed over media coverage – and there was more of it at United than anywhere else.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was someone who implicitly understood all of this – who got the club – but simply didn’t have the coaching level required. It says much that the best job he has been approached for since leaving is that of Ireland.
Ten Hag, meanwhile, was a combination of all these issues. The furore after his first two defeats in August 2022 stunned the Dutch coach, forcing an extreme compromise of his tactics. Despite admirably getting through that to win the Carabao Cup, it never seemed like he felt completely comfortable. The players never fully connected and the storm quickly enveloped him again.
All of that only worsened the lack of clarity around United as a whole. It’s why the assertiveness of Amorim’s appointment was so badly needed. It’s also why there will still be an element of portentousness to Portman Road on Sunday.
Amorim’s first fixture as United manager, in his case away to Ipswich Town, is an event that only 11 men have encountered since Sir Matt Busby made the club what it is: a patriarch-guided institution, rich in history and identity. That is of great value, but also of immense weight.
First impressions
Opening league games of Man Utd managers since Sir Matt Busby
Erik ten Hag: Man Utd 1-2 Brighton – 7 August 2022
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: Cardiff City 1-5 Man Utd – 22 December 2018
Jose Mourinho: Bournemouth 1-3 Man Utd – 14 August 2016
Louis van Gaal: Man Utd 1-2 Swansea City – 16 August 2014
David Moyes: Swansea City 1-4 Man Utd – 17 August 2013
Alex Ferguson: Oxford United 2-0 Man Utd – 8 November 1986
Ron Atkinson: Coventry City 2-1 Man Utd – 29 August 1981
Dave Sexton: Birmingham City 1-4 Man Utd – 20 August 1977
Tommy Doherty: Leeds United 1-1 Man Utd – 23 December 1973
Frank O’Farrell: Derby County 1-1 Man Utd – 14 August 1971
Wilf McGuinness: Crystal Palace 2-2 Man Utd – 9 August 1969
It perhaps says much that only four of those permanent managers have actually won their first games, and that list isn’t auspicious. None of Dave Sexton, Moyes or Solskjaer followed those victories by winning a trophy. Mourinho never won a league or Champions League.
The experience has often been chastening. That was especially so with Ten Hag’s defeat to Brighton, Van Gaal’s to Swansea City and even Ferguson’s to Oxford United. It is as if all the optimism just evaporates. Then again, part of the reason United had to change managers each time was because everything was going so badly.
This is precisely why the club have to get out of such “messiah” thinking, which is a realisation that has at least started to sink in. Amorim’s own mindset is even more important in this respect. Forget the noise and focus on what matters, which is in this case is getting the football right and gradually winning games.
One figure who used to work with him at Sporting translates that in another way. “He doesn’t give a shit and will just do what is necessary to bring success.” He has gone from the Portuguese third tier to restoring Sporting – a basketcase of a club – to the country’s title. That is already quite a leap.
It has led him here, an even greater leap, and one that only few in the game have experienced. The jump is all the more testing because of so many previous failures.
Amorim, as he approaches his first Premier League weekend, is well aware he needs to forget all that. United have badly needed such clarity.
