Roy Keane is never one to mince his words at the best of times but when something he said earlier turns out to be right, he makes sure everyone knows about it.
Ruben Amorim has arrived at Manchester United and he will take charge of his first game against Ipswich on November 24.
It comes just a few months after Erik ten Hag signed a contract extension, assembled a new staff, and the board spent nearly £200 million on new players for him.
Fast forward four months, and Ten Hag is gone, Ruud van Nistelrooy came, impressed, and left, and Amorim is the next man up in a whirlwind few months at Old Trafford.
Keane predicted a major thing about United which has turned out to be true.
Roy Keane’s prediction about Man Utd
When Ruud van Nistelrooy was appointed as the assistant manager at the club, it was widely thought that he was the contingency plan if Ten Hag failed.
That is exactly how it turned out to be, even though Ten Hag stressed repeatedly that getting Van Nistelrooy was his choice.
However, Keane’s prediction wasn’t just limited to this, as it was predicted by pretty much anyone with common sense and judgement.
Keane said when Ten Hag left and Amorim was announced that there was no chance that Van Nistelrooy would stay on despite feverish media speculation over his future.
Van Nistelrooy continuously pleaded to Amorim to let him stay as well but the Portuguese manager was clear about his stance from the get-go.
Keane said on The Overlap: “I told you a few weeks ago [that Van Nistelrooy will leave], you don’t listen to me! He was never going to stay, of course, he wasn’t.
“He handled himself well but with a new manager coming in and especially with Ruud saying, ‘I’m going to stay and help the club,’. Amorim has got 26 of his own staff coming in. You don’t need Ruud who’s been a part of the previous management.
“United give him a few bob, everyone wins, it’s simple.” [Relevant comments begin near the 48th minute].
A clean slate is the correct decision
As always, Roy Keane not wanting to complicate matters needlessly to feed the speculation and frenzy has turned out to be the correct prediction by cutting through the noise.
The spectre of Van Nistelrooy hung over Ten Hag and the shadow only loomed larger with every negative result, something which Amorim can do without.
It is absolutely the right decision to axe Van Nistelrooy and the members of Ten Hag’s coaching staff to start with a clean slate and an eye to the future.
As good as Van Nistelrooy did, from a cynical perspective, his chances of staying would have almost improved had he not done as well as he did as the interim manager.
As it stands, it is arguable that he’s already done enough to land a permanent job somewhere else since joining as the assistant at Old Trafford was already a step down in terms of stature.
He had a successful time at PSV as head coach and now that the future is sorted, he can pursue his No 1 ambitions again.
Who knows, maybe the door to Old Trafford opens again in the future and a more ready Van Nistelrooy answers the call, this time as the top man from the beginning.
Man Utd fans will hope that it’s after an illustrious spell under Ruben Amorim!
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