Jason Wilcox and Ruben Amorim have seen their relationship dynamic fall into “alignment” with another major Manchester United figure at Old Trafford.
Ineos snapped up Jason Wilcox, who was initially appointed Manchester United technical director, from Southampton in 2024 as part of its regime at the club.
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Wilcox later took up sporting director duties after Dan Ashworth’s abrupt exit from Old Trafford before ascending to the role of director of football in 2025.
The 54-year-old ex-United technical director has been a key figure for Ineos and has played an instrumental role behind the scenes at Old Trafford for Ruben Amorim.
Amorim, who arrived at United and replaced Erik ten Hag in 2024, has been spotted in the past sharing a close relationship with Wilcox during their time at the club.
How Stephen Torpey’s arrival at Man Utd has changed the working dynamic with Jason Wilcox and Ruben Amorim
Stephen Torpey has become an important behind-the-scenes figure at Old Trafford after he was appointed to the role of academy director at the Premier League club.
Nick Cox left Old Trafford to take up a role as Everton technical director and Stephen Torpey stepped up as his successor at the Manchester United youth academy.
Speaking on Manchester United’s ‘Inside Carrington’ podcast, Torpey was asked how ‘important’ his relationship was with Jason Wilcox and Ruben Amorim at the club.
“Absolutely. I mean, that’s the alignment,” he said.
“So, you know, I’ve been at the football club in quite a short space of time, but we’ve already had many interactions around what is needed and, you know, what does Ruben want to look for?
“What type of players would he like us to, you know, support the first team?
“You know, ultimately as an academy as well, we’re here to service the first-team’s performance whilst also trying to balance the development of those young players.
“But we have to create opportunities for these young people to be seen and to be exposed.”
Stephen Torpey explains exactly what he looked for with the Man Utd academy after his arrival at Old Trafford
Stephen Torpey had been working as the academy director at Premier League side Brentford before he took up the same role at United back in August.
News of Nick Cox’s departure from United first emerged in June and the former Red Devils academy director left his role at the Premier League club in September.
Torpey has now said that there are three important details for what he does in his role at United amid his relationship with Wilcox and Amorim at Old Trafford.
“You know, I’m a big believer in three things,” he said.
“You know, our job as the academy, as the staff, is to improve performance daily. So, performance is one of them, but we’ve got to improve it.”
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Torpey added: “The second thing would be potential and understanding the potential of the player and then creating opportunities.
“So, if you put all those three things in a player or a young person, our care gets exposure to all three things, then we’ve got the best chance of them developing.
“That’s one thing I’ve spoken about a lot since I’ve arrived is that I believe in those three things and if we can get those right and deliver it in a really amazing Manchester United way, then we’ve got a chance of doing some great things.”
United will return to action on 24th November and the Red Devils will host Everton in the Premier League for their clash at Old Trafford.
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