New Manchester United manager admits joining rivals City did cross his mind, but wants to be ‘new Fergie’ at the Red Devils
He has not even started at Manchester United and incoming manager Ruben Amorim is already causing a stir admitting something that could get Red Devils’ fans off-side from the get go.
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Ruben Amorim has admitted he thought the departing Sporting director of football might ask him to follow him to Manchester City next season before he committed to taking over their rivals Manchester United instead.
Although City privately distanced themselves from claims that they were interested in Amorim, the 39-year-old Portuguese coach was linked with a move to the Premier League champions because his colleague and long-time friend Hugo Viana is set to replace Txiki Begiristain as City’s director of football in 2025.
Pep Guardiola’s contract expires at the end of the campaign, and although City are hopeful that their manager will sign a new deal, speculation has been rife about whom the club could appoint if the Catalan departs.
“Obviously it is one [thing] that crossed my mind,” Amorim said of the possibility of managing City. “But I never had any doubts about the club I wanted to work for and my decision has been made. I was not undecided about it. I wanted Manchester United.”
Amorim, who was appointed United manager last Friday on a 2 and a half-year deal, said that expectation would only heighten when he joined United if his Sporting team beat City in the Champions League tonight (Tuesday).
“If the result is negative, expectations will drop which may be a good thing, but if we win they [the United fans] will think that the new Alex Ferguson has arrived,” he joked.
“Of course, I’m sure there will be interest on the match [in Manchester] and everyone will be paying attention to every detail but my focus is on Sporting. Before that new adventure in Manchester what interests me is leaving the Alvalade with a perfect farewell.”
The City clash will be his penultimate match in charge of Sporting, with his final game at their home ground, the Jose Alvalade Stadium, on Sunday.
Although he received a warm welcome from the fans before the 5-1 win over Estrela Amadora on Friday, others have objected to Amorim’s departure.
One set of ultras put up a banner outside the stadium before the match that read: “Amorim, this is no longer your home, thank you.”
“It will be an emotional night but I am going to control my emotions,” he said. “It would be perfect to win even if we do it when the fans are whistling.”
United recruited Amorim because he won two Portuguese titles in the space of four years. Under the former Portugal midfielder, Sporting have enjoyed a perfect start to the domestic campaign, winning all ten of their league matches, and in the Champions League they have seven points from their first three matches, as do City.
A couple of years before he took his first top-flight job with Braga, Amorim spent a week at United’s Carrington training ground learning from Jose Mourinho, the manager at the time, who is a mentor and idol for the new man at Old Trafford.
Amorim will seek Mourinho’s advice about the United job once his spell with Sporting officially ends on November 11 after the away match against Braga.
“I will have an opportunity to speak to him. He is a very experienced person,” Amorim said. “The greatest impact on me was how he dealt with me. He showed me that he can win everything. He opened the door for many of us. He was very important for us. We knew his teams would win. As Portuguese football fans we started to believe.
“It [the internship] was very interesting. He invited me after I completed the postgraduate [High Performance Coaching] course [at Lisbon University] designed by him.
“It was interesting but not decisive in my decision [to take the United job]. It’s probably the only time where you go somewhere as an intern and go back as the head coach of the first team.”
Amorim has a lot of love for Guardiola too. Yesterday (Monday) he described the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich head coach as the best manager in the world.
Amorim knows all too well how devastating Guardiola’s City team can be on their day. They battered Sporting 5-0 in the away leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie in Lisbon in February 2022.
“I think that I am now a better coach than I was before that match,” Amorim said. “Unfortunately Pep Guardiola is an even better coach, so the distance between us is probably the same. We have a different team this time, a better team, and we are ready. Manchester City have world-class players but we have to be brave and stick to how we normally play. I want to see my players fighting tomorrow.”
One of Amorim’s best skills is that he is a good communicator, both with his players and in the media.
His English is very good – better than that of Erik ten Hag, his predecessor, for example – but he thinks it will take him three months before he is confident enough to speak the language properly.
“My communication at the beginning will be simpler because it is in English,” said Amorim, who answered all questions in his press conference in Portuguese. “I think I will have to spend three months [improving my English]. They say that is enough.
“I speak to some Sporting players in English but the [United] players will not be offended if I say things in more basic [English] at the start. It will be part of the adaptation.”
Sporting suffered a blow on the eve of the match after Goncalo Inacio, the Portugal centre back, was ruled out with a thigh injury that he suffered in Friday’s match.
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