Having just calmed one storm inside Elland Road with a well-earned point against Leeds, Ruben Amorim walked into the after-match press conference and whipped up a far greater one with an outburst that could cost him his job at Manchester United.
Amorim had almost finished speaking when he faced one final question. It related to his sullen mood at Carrington on Friday and cryptic comments made to the media when he hinted at discord with the United hierarchy and director of football Jason Wilcox in particular.
What followed was a jaw-dropping diatribe that leaves Amorim and his employers very little room for manoeuvre in the coming days. Enzo Maresca only lasted four games after publicly challenging the Chelsea board last month, and Amorim’s words are far more damaging by comparison.
‘I noticed that you receive selective information about everything,’ he began. It suggested that Amorim feels he is the victim of leaks coming from within Old Trafford and Carrington.
He was just getting started. The next bombshell concerned his title of head coach and smacked of frustration at not having the kind of control over team affairs given to managers. Could that be transfers, tactics, team selection or all the above?
Either way, Amorim’s message was clear: you wouldn’t treat Thomas Tuchel, Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho this way, so why should I be any different? It was a ‘back me or sack me’ ultimatum, a direct challenge to the United powerbrokers.
Ruben Amorim whipped up a storm with his post-match press conference after United were held to a 1-1 draw by Leeds
It was clear from his comments before Christmas and again on Friday, that he has grown increasingly irritated over the conditions surrounding his job – with Wilcox name-checked on several occasions – and here it was spelled out with brutal honesty.
‘I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach of Manchester United, and that is clear,’ said Amorim, conveniently ignoring the fact that he was formally appointed as the club’s first head coach on November 1, 2024.
‘It’s going to be like this for 18 months or when the board decide to change. So that was my point. I want to finish with that. I’m not going to quit. I will do my job until another guy is coming here to replace me.
‘I just want to say that I’m going to be the manager of this team, not just the coach – and I was really clear on that. That is going to finish in 18 months, and then everyone is going to move on. That was the deal. That is my job, not to be a coach.’
So not only was Amorim changing his job title, he was also dictating the terms and duration of his employment. It’s hard to see Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the executives he has put in place at United taking that lying down.
Ratcliffe has said that he likes Amorim’s honesty – the fact that he feels free to tell the billionaire owner to f*** off if he sticks his nose in – but this certainly wasn’t what he had in mind.
If Amorim won’t quit or consider staying on in 18 months’ time, then Ratcliffe, chief executive Omar Berrada and Wilcox have a huge call to make in the days ahead. United’s next game is at Burnley on Wednesday.
Amorim is known to have needed reassurances over his job when he hit rock bottom last January, but these were the words of an angry man not a desperate one.
Matheus Cunha score United’s goal but the Reds couldn’t go on to snatch all three points
Brenden Aaronson scored Leeds’s goal with a well-taken finish into the bottom corner
Is the situation retrievable this time? How will the club look if they bow to his demands? And what of Wilcox, the man who seems to be smack bang in the middle of Amorim’s crosshairs?
United’s head of comms was trying to wrap things up when Amorim aimed one last broadside that once again appeared to implicate Wilcox.
‘If people cannot handle the Gary Nevilles and the critics, we need to change the club,’ he said.
‘No, guys, I just want to say that. I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach. In every department, the scouting department, the sporting director (Wilcox) needs to do his job, and I will do mine for 18 months, and then we move on.’
Amorim has long felt that United do not take criticism well from pundits like Neville, and need to be more honest about the culture at Old Trafford – hence his comments last month about young players at the club being ‘entitled’.
Indeed, his public utterances have had United executives running for cover for some time. Suggesting that his team are maybe the worst in United’s history and admitting that sometimes he hates his players and wants to quit are just two of the more colourful quotes during his 14 months in charge.
But very few managers – or head coaches – go against the club in this manner and survive.
His frustration has simmered over Christmas, and again on Friday. The irony was that Amorim had appeared to put it behind him for now with a hard-earned point at Elland Road.
‘No, guys, I just want to say that. I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach,’ Amorim said
Is this a retrievable situation for Amorim or the beginning of the end of his United tenure?
It’s a hard enough place for any United team to visit, never mind one missing eight senior players, and on that basis a 1-1 draw was far more creditable than the same outcome against Wolves at Old Trafford last week when Amorim and his players being booed by the home fans.
United appeared to have weathered the storm but went behind just after the hour mark when the otherwise impressive Ayden Heaven was caught napping by Brenden Aaronson who raced clear to beat Senne Lammens and send Elland Road into rapture.
Credit to Amorim though, who has been criticised for formations and substitutions since Wolves. As the Leeds fans were celebrating, he summoned the much-maligned Joshua Zirkzee off a bench of predominantly young substitutes, and the Dutchman played a key role in United’s equaliser 174 seconds later.
Benjamin Sesko knocked the ball down to Zirkzee and he slid it through to Matheus Cunha. The Brazilian was being pursued by Sebastiaan Bornauw but Lucas Perri inexplicably came out of his goal and made up Cunha’s mind for him. He steered a shot wide of the Leeds keeper and it rolled inside the far post.
Cunha also fired against the foot of the upright after Dominic Calvert-Lewis had headed against the post for a Leeds side who are now unbeaten in seven games as they edge clear of the relegation zone.
Both teams deserved a point. But that was largely forgotten the moment Amorim began making his.
