Amorim Takes Up The Poisoned Chalice At Old Trafford
Manchester United will have a new head coach in situ by the 11th of November. The significance of this, apparently, is that he is the first ever head coach to be appointed by the club. All his predecessors were, in some cases rather generously, given the title of manager.
As is the case these days at Old Trafford the previous coach/manager was sacked after a long run of poor results and performances.
This exalted little collection of misfits also includes once-great managers such as Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho, a good manager in David Moyes and a pretty bad one in Olé Gunnar Solskjær, (although the totally deluded amongst the Manchester United supporters still pine for a return to the days when the Norwegian spent an absolute fortune to win precisely nothing over a three year period, playing some abysmal football along the way).
For those with an eye for symmetry, Rúben Amorim will become the club’s sixth permanent manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. Coincidentally, Fergie himself was the sixth permanent manager to be appointed after Sir Matt Busby retired and Amorim is only the second United coach to be instated in November, the first being, yes you guessed it, Ferguson. So the omens are good in that respect at least. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take Amorim four years to turn things around because United managers generally get three nowadays which, in some cases is still too long by a year or so!
With club ‘legend’, (which ex-player isn’t a club legend these days?), Ruud van Nistelrooy currently steering the ship and following on from an impressive 5-2 win over Leicester the natives are quite happy. Also happy are the non-native plastic fans who haven’t yet switched allegiance to whichever shirt they like best or whichever team has strung together an unbeaten run of at least two games.
Ruud will now get the chance to prove he should be given the job he won’t be given for the next three games. Beating Chelsea and PAOK Athens at Old Trafford shouldn’t be beyond this team so, by the time the new boss takes over, United could be on a roll, confident and playing well.
Alternatively, a couple of losses or even draws at home will dampen the enthusiasm for the Dutchman but conversely, will increase the expectation and urgency for the much needed change. Ruud can then return to coaching the team on how not to score goals.
Either way, van Nistelrooy won’t be in charge for long enough to lose any fans whichever way the results go. As previously mentioned, a certain Norwegian did a terrible job for three years but that hasn’t tarnished his reputation as a player or a person, nor should it.
There is, of course, already talk of who will be sold by the new manager and the list is, basically, the usual suspects who have been going to be sold by the previous three coaches.
Do the club really need five centre backs? Why is there no cover at left-back meaning a player, who is pretty useless at right-back despite it being his ‘natural position’, is used at left-back where he is even worse? Oh, hang on, Harry Amass looks a very decent prospect in the position but, for some obscure reason, ten Hag insisted on playing Dalot there, or Mazraoui or even Martinez before he would pick Amass.
It is to be hoped that the confusion which surrounded Eric ten Hag’s tactics, team selections and in-game decisions will quickly evaporate when Amorim takes over. No longer will we have to listen to the boring press conferences consisting mainly of “yes, but we won two trophies eh” and “only City won more so we are second eh, eh, eh”.
As usual, United’s new manager will be expected to turn the ship around, sail it to port, refurbish it and come out with it being able to fly as well as sail all whilst solving all the world’s problems.
Since Ferguson five have tried and five have failed. This is more of a reflection on the hierarchy than the managers appointed. Now, to a great extent, the hierarchy has changed. Now a petro-chemicals billionaire runs the club alongside a failed cycling coach, an average ex-player from Blackburn Rovers and Dan Ashworth. Only Omar Berrada has any history of success due to his Manchester City past. But they couldn’t possibly be any worse than the previous chiefs, could they?
