The demise of Ruben Amorim at Man Utd involves Jason Wilcox, Emi Martinez and an interview so damaging to one player ‘the broadcaster agreed’ to remove it.
Amorim was finally sacked after 14 months, 63 games, hundreds of millions of pounds spent and, ultimately, a tense chat with Man Utd shot-caller Wilcox, who might well have aimed a Jose Mourinho-shaped dig.
With help from a great many journalists with contacts in and around Old Trafford, here are the best bits of the inside stories of Amorim’s Man Utd sacking.
The bitter Wilcox meeting and what was said
The meeting between Amorim and director of football Jason Wilcox seems destined to go down in Man Utd infamy.
Amorim is described by the various reports on his demise to have been ‘overly emotional’, ‘very negative’, ‘erratic’ and even ‘incensed’ at having his tactical approach questioned in the aftermath of the Wolves home draw, which appears to have been far more damaging than the stalemate at Leeds five days later.
The changes in shape which delivered a thrilling attacking performance against Bournemouth and clear improvements in the win over Newcastle were cast aside when perhaps the worst team in Premier League history came to Old Trafford, and Amorim greeted Wolves with his patented three-at-the-back formation.
The result was an insipid performance and humiliating draw which underlined the disconnect between club and coach. Rob Dawson of ESPN writes that it underlined ‘a growing feeling within the club that Amorim and his staff had come to fear the Premier League’.
It led to confusion in the Man Utd hierarchy, which felt that Amorim needed to show more flexibility and a willingness to adapt.
Having already grown frustrated with ‘the unwanted influence of Wilcox,’ according to Simon Stone of the BBC, Amorim ‘blew up’, to phrase a couple of reports, at the perceived criticism.
Two accounts of the meeting do seem especially ghost-written by a Jason W. No, that’s too obvious. Let’s say J. Wilcox.
Dawson says the director of football had simply ‘encouraged’ Amorim ‘to be more proactive’ and ‘delivered the message in a calm and measured way’.
Richard Jolly of the Independent writes that Wilcox was ‘not just expressing his own thoughts but those of others in the structure,’ and that ‘what Amorim probably did not realise, however, was that Wilcox was the last defending him, the last arguing he should be granted more time’ and ‘could not have done more for him’.
It is not known precisely what Wilcox said during the meeting which riled Amorim so, but Samuel Luckhurst of The Sun goes into greater detail than most.
He claims that Wilcox told Amorim ‘he was not of the same pedigree as other specific coaches,’ which Luckhurst speculates was the reason the Portuguese name-dropped Antonio Conte, Thomas Tuchel and Jose Mourinho in his acerbic post-Leeds press conference.
The final call to sack Amorim was made by Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada with the full support of the rest of the Manchester United decision-making structure. The line is that the coach’s failure to carry out his promise to develop and evolve the team away from his own preferred philosophy after over a year in charge was ultimately his undoing, rather than any breakdown in relationships with higher-ups.
MORE ON THE INFLUENCE OF JASON WILCOX AT MANCHESTER UNITED
* Ta-ra, Amorim. Now for Man Utd’s inept board to hire their next underling
* Jason Wilcox is absurdly one of English football’s most powerful figures, in accordance with the prophecy
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A threat to resign? And what Wilcox told the squad
Amorim, who had to be talked out of resigning during his first months in the role, is alleged to have flirted with a similar decision during the talk with Wilcox.
In a wide-ranging Athletic article, Laurie Whitwell, Adam Crafton and Mark Critchley write that when Wilcox told Amorim the players ‘had become confused over his vision’, the coach simply ‘responded that the players needed to be changed’.
Wilcox’s reply was diplomatic, hoping to ‘work through the issues’, but Amorim ‘reacted by saying he wished to leave the club and would be calling his agent’.
He had his wish a few days later.
The Telegraph says ‘those inside the club’ believed Amorim ‘wanted to go and was determined to engineer an exit,’ with one source quoted as saying: “This is a manager who basically decided to blow it all up. He’s been looking for the opportunity. He wanted out.”
Richard Keys absolutely nailed it.
Wilcox told the players in a meeting held after Amorim’s sacking that “we don’t understand where the last 48 hours have come from,” and how he had also “sensed some situations where they were not on the same wavelength as Amorim”.
It is not known what Harry Maguire decided to emphatically head clear in response.
What part did Gary Neville play?
“If people cannot handle the Gary Nevilles, the criticism, everything, we need to change the club,” Amorim said in his final public comments as Man Utd head coach.
It seemed like a strange comment at the time, out of place in an already notably abrasive missive. Yet as with much of what Amorim said, it was heavily influenced by his feelings behind the scenes.
Amorim had grown to feel ‘the pressure to change his system’ from Wilcox and those above him was building because of ‘continued criticism from former players in the media, including Gary Neville and Paul Scholes,’ according to ESPN’s Dawson.
The three Athletic writers suggest Amorim’s comment might have been ‘a reference to the possibility that Ratcliffe watches Neville’s podcast, in which he has questioned Amorim’s tactics’.
Amorim had essentially grown to feel that the ‘external noise’ surrounding Man Utd, as Rob Dorsett of Sky Sports puts it, had presented ‘unique challenges’.
But Jamie Jackson of The Guardian says nothing will change, even with Amorim’s frustration at the set-up: ‘Whoever does take over will have to work within the structure that gives Wilcox and Berrada a higher status regarding football policy than the head coach.’
Neville has, of course, since had his say.
Transfer tussles
No-one should be willing to lose their job over Emiliano Martinez but there might never have been a man more willing to die on unnecessarily awkward hills than Amorim.
While far from the biggest issue causing his ultimate downfall, transfers certainly contributed. Some situations are specifically cited, such as Amorim’s treatment of the bomb squad and how Alejandro Garnacho’s value was deemed to have been reduced by £15m as a direct result of how he was ostracised around the time of the Europa League final.
Another bone of contention was how Amorim had a £72m striker in Benjamin Sesko foist upon him despite his desire for a proven Premier League commodity in Ollie Watkins.
But the decision to sign Senne Lammens over Martinez was the bigger sticking point.
That was where the Man Utd hierarchy ‘drew a line’ and ‘refused to sanction’ the transfer (Stone, BBC), which would have cost far more in a fee and wages for a much older player.
But it was that experience and personality in particular which Amorim felt his squad lacked.
It is said by ESPN’s Dawson that Amorim’s praise of Matheus Cunha in October – “we need leaders, but sometimes what I am thinking is we need some crazy guys” – was actually ‘viewed internally as a dig at the board for passing on Martinez’.
Things came to a head in January when Amorim pushed for Antoine Semenyo, a summer target with a £65m release clause which is active through the start of the winter window.
While the Bournemouth forward was disappointed with elements of Manchester United’s approach in the summer, when they eventually favoured a move for Bryan Mbeumo instead, Semenyo was willing to talk with Amorim again and did so over the phone.
It was then when Semenyo sought assurances over his role but also the future composition of the team itself, having been ‘concerned’ he would be used at wing-back.
Paul Hirst of The Times details how Amorim told Semenyo ‘he was a flexible manager’ during that call, and that he would be moving away from any variation of his favoured 3-4-3 formation soon.
James Ducker and Sam Wallace of the Daily Telegraph corroborate that, saying Amorim told Semenyo he would be used ‘as a left-winger in a dynamic 4-3-3’. Yet days later Man Utd had reverted to type in that Wolves game, perhaps signalling to Amorim’s employers that his show of tactical flexibility and evolution was neither lasting nor worth investing more money in.
Public comments
As one Telegraph source said: “You can write down 100 things he said in press conferences where you’re thinking, ‘F**king hell Ruben, what are you doing? Why are you saying that?”
Amorim himself appears to have accepted how many of his painfully honest public comments worked against him in the end, including his decision to question the development of three academy graduates the club had loaned out, later questioning “the feeling of entitlement” he felt had become a problem “for the kids” at the club.
Those quotes and his personal barbs even at senior players, like Benjamin Sesko or the “anxiety”-ridden Patrick Dorgu, went down abysmally, much like his handling of Kobbie Mainoo.
In Amorim’s defence, Dawson says the Portuguese continued with his approach ‘in the hope it would elicit a positive response’ from a group he deemed “broken”, “fragile” and in need of some home truths.
But there were moments he clearly crossed the line, Roy Keane MUTV rant-style, as Dawson documents:
‘In another television interview last season, Amorim was so outspoken about a player that the club felt it was better to ask the broadcaster to remove the comments before they were aired. The broadcaster agreed.’
It all spawned one of the great manager nicknames, delivered by ‘one player representative’ according to Hirst of The Times after Amorim declared them “the worst team in the history of Manchester United”.
Farewell, “Ruben Interim”. You will be missed.
