With speculation continuing to surround Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United future, Fabrizio Romano has provided some clarity on the situation following the manager’s “face-to-face” Sir Jim Ratcliffe meeting.
Ruben Amorim's Man Utd win-rate
If the decision was based on statistics alone, then Amorim would be heading for the exit door already at Old Trafford. The former Sporting Club boss had plenty of excuses to fall back on last season. He had the mess left behind by Erik ten Hag to clean up, a new system to implement and new signings to welcome in the summer.
Those excuses are now running out, however. Amorim is no longer the new guy around the club, he has his signings and he has had almost 12 months to get his system working. He has persisted with his claim that the problem is not his 3-4-2-1 formation, but eight Premier League wins in 10 months suggests that it would at least be worthwhile to attempt something new.
The numbers make for damning reading. Since World War II, not a single permanent Man United manager has maintained a worse win percentage than Amorim’s 36.17%. Out of 31 Premier League games in charge, the Portuguese coach has lost 16. And to make matters worse, the Red Devils couldn’t even find a way past Grimsby Town in the first round of the Carabao Cup this season.
It is a sorry state of affairs at Old Trafford and the pressure is only increasing on Amorim, who must turn things around. Rumours throughout the week have claimed that he has just three games to save his job, but Romano has since added clarity to the situation.
Romano provides Amorim Man Utd sack update
As Romano told his YouTube channel, Ratcliffe has now held a “face-to-face” meeting with Amorim to discuss the problems at Man Utd and how he plans to turn things around. For now, his job is considered safe, and he has the respect of INEOS to turn things around, but there’s no doubt that things need to change.
“Ratcliffe was at the Etihad stadium for the derby… don’t underestimate the presence of Ratcliffe who wants to be present and involved in the conversations and part of the process to understand what is not working, why Man Utd are performing at this level.
“Ratcliffe flew into Carrington and had several meetings. Sources at Man Utd make very clear those meetings were planned, they were already planned even before the derby result. But in these meetings there was also a conversation, a direct face-to-face conversation with Ruben Amorim.”
Romano then added: “Many have asked me about managers and candidates [to replace Amorim]… we are NOT at the stage where we can say ‘this guy can be the next Man Utd manager or the other guy is the main candidate.’
“Man Utd have not started any official conversation with other managers. [United have] respect for Amorim, [they] keep working with Amorim to improve the squad, but it’s also important to say that obviously, results are needed. They can’t continue like this forever. Amorim is aware of this situation.”
With Chelsea up next, it doesn’t get any easier for Man Utd, who were eased out of the way by a dominant Manchester City last time out. What Saturday’s game does represent, however, is an ideal opportunity for Amorim to get back on track with a statement victory at Old Trafford.