Ruben Amorim didn’t want to leave Sporting CP for Manchester United midway through the season. He knew that doing so would only make his task at Old Trafford even tougher. But United were insistent. They told him it was a case of “now or never”.
“I had three days to make the decision,” Amorim revealed in November. “That’s what I did. If I rejected the job now, in six months I would not have got it. I didn’t want to regret making this decision.” One cannot help but wonder if he regrets it now, though.
Rather incredibly, United have actually managed to get worse since Amorim succeeded Erik ten Hag as the club’s permanent manager three months ago. The 20-time champions of England have slipped to 15th in the Premier League standings after Sunday’s 1-0 loss to fellow crisis club Tottenham – which was their eighth defeat in their last 12 top-flight games under their new boss. “Everything is going wrong,” he lamented after the game in north London.
Likely compounding Amorim’s misery is the fact that Sporting are also struggling without him. A team that looked certain to retain their Liga Portugal crown have come under serious pressure at the top of the table, while a Champions League campaign that promised so much is effectively already over going into Wednesday’s play-off round second leg against Borussia Dortmund…