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Ruben Amorim starts his journey as the latest Manchester United coach to take on the challenge of reviving the storied club.
Ruben Amorim at Manchester United (Screengrab)
Manchester United released footage of Ruben Amorim’s arrival at Carrington for his first training session as the head coach.
Amorim was greeted by chief executive Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth, and technical director Jason Wilcox upon his arrival on Monday.
On Tuesday at Manchester United’s training ground, Amorim met some of his new players for the first time, including Kobbie Mainoo, Mason Mount and Luke Shaw.
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The 39-year-old Amorim enjoyed a successful four-year tenure at Sporting, guiding the Lisbon club to their first league title in 19 years in 2021 and reclaiming the trophy last season.
Sporting lead the Primeira Liga with a perfect 33 points from 11 games, six ahead of Porto and eight clear of Benfica.
They are second in the Champions League standings with 10 points from four games, two behind Liverpool, having defeated Manchester City 4-1 in Amorim’s last home game. Sporting beat Braga 4-2 away on Sunday in his final match in charge.
Meanwhile, Ruud van Nistelrooy’s departure was announced on the day Ruben Amorim arrived in Manchester as Manchester United’s permanent boss. Assistants Rene Hake, Jelle ten Rouwelaar and Pieter Morel also left on Monday, with the Old Trafford club saying they would announce Amorim’s staff at a later date.
The 48-year-old Van Nistelrooy had steered United to three wins and a draw in all competitions since the sacking of Erik Ten Hag, and the former United striker expressed several times that he hoped to remain with the club after Amorim’s arrival.
Van Nistelrooy joined Ten Hag’s staff in the close season as an assistant before taking over as interim manager. He was serenaded by fans at Old Trafford after Sunday’s victory.
Van Nistelrooy helped restore stability and confidence in the club, who are 13th in the table with 15 points after 11 matches but only four points off third place.
Sixth Time’s The Charm
Amorim is United’s sixth permanent coach since club great Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 after winning his 13th Premier League title. Ferguson won 28 major trophies, including two Champions Leagues, and his record has cast a shadow over all of his successors.
David Moyes was the first to try to step into his shoes, lasted eight months and began what has been a cycle of hiring, firing and reboots in an attempt to return the club to its past glories.
Since then United has gone through Champions League winners (Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho), an iconic former player (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer) and one of Europe’s emerging coaching talents (Ten Hag), but has not been able to stop City from dominating English football, while Liverpool, Chelsea and even Leicester have lifted the title in that time.
(With inputs from Agencies)