The layers of Ruben Amorim’s faults at Man Utd continue to emerge, and the latest exposure by Wayne Rooney confirms a damaging disconnect directly against the club’s values.
It’s been just five games, but Michael Carrick has already made Ruben Amorim look extremely misguided about many of his stances on Man Utd.
The long-term view remains murky, but some things made fans uncomfortable when Amorim was the manager, and those haven’t aged any better since his departure.
One such damaging disconnect has been confirmed by Wayne Rooney, who felt uncomfortable with how Amorim approached a key club value.
Wayne Rooney on Ruben Amorim’s approach to Man Utd academy
Amorim’s approach to the academy was one of the most confusing things for fans at Old Trafford because of the reputation he came with.
His list of debuts at Sporting is basically the stuff of legends, and he gave plenty of youngsters a chance in his debut season at United as well.
Then, somehow, a switch turned in pre-season, and he seemed determined to “bring into line” the academy players who had never shown the inclination towards going out of line.
It couldn’t have been very encouraging for Rooney, whose son, Kai Rooney, is one of the academy’s brighter talents.
Speaking on The Overlap, Rooney has now confirmed that there was a ‘disconnect’ between the first-team and the academy under Amorim.
He said: “I’ve got two boys in the academy and I speak about this a lot. There was a massive disconnect between the academy and the first team.
“Whether people say that’s right or wrong, we’ve seen that connecting immediately come back [with Michael Carrick].
“We’re seeing first-team coaches at academy games. There’s a real interest.”
Rooney went on to criticise Amorim for his remarks on Chido Obi and Harry Amass, when he spoke about their lack of readiness for the first team, saying that ‘it’s not right to do at any level’.
Michael Carrick is the perfect Amorim antidote
Man Utd fans have a lot more patience with head coaches than most clubs in world football, but that patience still needs to be earned.
The easiest way to do so is by embracing the club’s values, which lie in three words: Youth. Courage. Success. – none of which Amorim seemed too keen on.
He wasn’t very successful, to put it politely. He developed a weird agenda against youth players, and he was rarely courageous in his game management.
Carrick has been the perfect antidote to all those stances, and that’s something Rooney picked up on as well, championing him for the job.
Carrick makes exciting changes to try and win games, he attends youth games despite not having the fixtures to give them a chance, and so far, he’s already blowing Amorim’s wins out of the water despite the small sample size.
It remains to be seen whether Carrick is allowed to do this long-term, but even if he isn’t, then the next manager already knows what needs to be done and what should be avoided at all costs.
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