Sometimes, a player can become the symbol of a manager’s failing at a club, a phenomenon with which Erik ten Hag should be familiar, and Ruben Amorim is following in his footsteps.
The mitigating factor for Ruben Amorim at Man Utd, which none of his predecessors had, is that he’s not solely driving the transfer policy.
He’s backed well by Ineos, but there are no manager-driven signings like Antony or Sofyan Amrabat during his time.
One such signing cost Erik ten Hag his job, as per Paul Scholes, and even though there’s no “Amorim signing” anymore, he is well on his way to creating a symbol of his own failure at Old Trafford.
Paul Scholes makes Erik ten Hag claim
When it comes to Ten Hag’s failings at Man Utd, the list is long, all of which added up to make his time at the club untenable.
It’s eerie that most of his failings, like an empty midfield, seem to have transferred to his successor as well, but there is one marked difference.
Regardless of the team-wide malaise, the players signed by Ineos have saved their reputation by putting in some encouraging performances.
The same couldn’t be said for Ten Hag, whose signings have a measly hit rate even if you’re being very lenient.
One, in particular, cost him his job, as per Scholes, speaking on The Good, The Bad, and The Football podcast, naming Antony.
“Can you remember any big signings that have cost the manager? Any big signings that you can say lately that definitely got the manager sacked?” Nicky Butt asked Scholes.
“Well, I think Antony was a big one,’ Scholes said.
“Yeah. You know what else I think? I think Ronaldo, obviously Ronaldo did great, but I think Ronaldo coming back as well killed a bit of the actual camaraderie within Man United,” Butt added.
Ruben Amorim is following Ten Hag’s bad footsteps
Amorim hasn’t hitched his wagon to a single player like Ten Hag did with Antony, but he is not listening in terms of letting a player dictate how his time at United ends up being.
For every Antony, Ten Hag had a Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho to secure the positive points in his legacy.
There is no such singular success story for Amorim, but he’s dangerously close to making Mainoo the personification of his failure at Old Trafford.
His preference for choosing Casemiro or Manuel Ugarte over the youngster isn’t much different from Ten Hag selecting Antony over Amad.
Amad showed how big an error that was once Ten Hag left, with Amorim being the one who gave him a consistent run of games.
Now, Amorim could be on his way to repeating history, this time on the wrong side of it, if Mainoo thrives under his successor.
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