If Ruben Amorim came to Manchester United expecting a tough job, the players are leaving no stone unturned in giving him weekly reminders too.
The latest one, a second in three days, came at Old Trafford as Man Utd lost 0-3 to Bournemouth, repeating last year’s scoreline in the same game.
From the owners to the manager, everything has changed at the club since that game except for one thing- the majority of players.
That puts the focus squarely on them, something which Gary Neville said is a “massive positive” coming off of a defeat that had many predicting doom.
Alan Shearer has echoed a similar sentiment, suggesting that Ruben Amorim will have only one clear message for the Man Utd owners after the latest defeat.
Alan Shearer on Ruben Amorim at Man Utd
A major thing working in Amorim’s favour is that this crop of players has performed like this under multiple managers so questions won’t be asked of him.
Then there’s the fact that he’s Ineos‘ own man, their first major managerial appointment with a good pedigree they’ll be desperate to see succeed.
It can be argued that for the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson, the Man Utd manager is more powerful than the players but not bigger than the club, just the way it should be.
Shearer spoke on The Rest is Football podcast and said the latest defeat will have Amorim questioning the wisdom of how this club has been run prior to his arrival.
Shearer said it reinforced the fact that Amorim has got a massive job on his hands but the underlying issue is something else entirely.
He said: “For Amorim coming in, he must think, ‘This job is so much harder than I thought it was going to be’.
“He has to have said to the owners, ‘The money that you’ve spent and this is what you’ve left me with to try and sort this mess out’.”
“It’s never a free hit in managing but because of how it’s been for so long there they have to give him time to judge things, give feedback. This season is a write-off for them. He has to be able to suss out who he wants, doesn’t want, and then they have to get rid of so many players and get in.”
Man Utd issues circle back to recruitment
Shearer is absolutely correct in his assessment that for United to have spent north of a billion pounds and still look like a rebuild is needed to get going is a damning verdict.
Amorim has never been a checkbook manager in his short career so far but from the looks of things, overseeing a rebuild along with the new ownership will have to be something he’ll do.
At least he can rest easy knowing that the majority of the funds spent at the club was under the previous footballing trust and the Ineos team oversaw a fairly successful window at the first time of asking.
Furthermore, the issues with FFP and PSR mean that United will have no choice but to be smart and consistent instead of panic buying the first player they can get their hands on for the first price quoted for him.
Despite all these green flags, it is impossible for the error of more than a decade to be fixed in a year so time is needed. As Shearer said, Amorim has got one massive job on his hands.
Amorim would say that’s just how he likes it!
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