Of all the outlandish possibilities flashing through the minds of the Manchester United hierarchy at the unveiling of Ruben Amorim in November, that they might be seeking to replace him in May would not have been one of them.
Yet, even on the cusp of a European final, that is arguably the only solution following another harrowing defeat in the Premier League at Old Trafford. Adding to the sense of devastation at United is the testimony of Amorim himself, wholly accepting of his culpability for the incoherence he has authored and the urgent need for change.
Embarrassment was his immediate emotion following the 2-0 defeat to West Ham, the seventh in the league at Old Trafford during his brief reign. There was no casting of blame, no carping about injuries, no Ange Postecoglou-like rage at reporters, just the frank admission that his name is on the door and that his exit might be a necessary part of the restoration process.
Honesty is an endearing quality. Amorim was hanging himself out to dry in the post-match crucible, revealing how much he cares about the job, and how difficult he has found it. In a week’s time he must lead his team out against Postecoglou’s equally cataclysmic Tottenham Hotspur in Bilbao for a place in the Champions League, a paradox that blew his mind in the immediacy of defeat to West Ham.
“To be honest with you, I’m not concerned about the final,” he said. “It’s by far the smallest problem in our club. We need to change something that is deeper than this. We are showing that playing Premier League and Champions League for us is the moon.”
In other words, unreachable, out of sight, beyond our capabilities.
So what do United do? To fire Amorim would not only be a humiliation, it would question the competence of the football structure introduced by Ineos to establish a winning culture. But can they afford not to?
There they sat watching the latest expression of 2025 United; executive Omar Berrada, Ineos sporting director Sir David Brailsford and technical director Jason Wilcox.
Together they settled on Amorim as the solution to the problem of Erik ten Hag, on whom they bestowed a new deal just five months earlier.
Ineos co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a man not averse to axing staff, must wonder if the men he appointed to run the football operation are themselves fit for purpose. After all, he flicked Dan Ashworth five months after appointing him at some cost to the post of sporting director. Either way the club’s executive branch find themselves in a worse spot than six months ago.
Amorim is right, the Europa League final is an anomaly, a match so fundamentally out of context that it cannot be the focus for a club still addressing the problems that continue to bring them down, player quality, mentality, attitude, culture, a cluster of amorphous failings hard to quantify and even tougher to solve.
What cannot be ignored is his contribution to the issues he was hired to erase. United have got worse under his leadership. His dogmatic attachment to an unfamiliar system has had a negative impact, the players unable to recognise or trust the patterns and rhythms of the Amorim template.
The selection against West Ham was a chance to build on a positive outcome, the 7-1 dispatch of Athletic Bilbao, the fourth-best team in Spain. However, drill down into both legs of the Europa League semi-final and you can see how the tie might have produced a different outcome. Bilbao were the better team at home until the first half red card for Dani Vivian and for an hour at Old Trafford until Mason Mount popped up.
Nevertheless, United were through and, buoyed by the outcome, Amorim went full three at the back, with Mount and Kobbie Mainoo included as part of a five across the middle.
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This was it, an Amorim team playing the Amorim way. And how did that pan out? The same hollowed-out shell of a performance, lacking clarity and purpose and resulting in a 17th league defeat of the season, 13 of which Amorim has overseen.
Amorim is not serving an apprenticeship at Old Trafford. He is the professor with all the answers, except he has none. He is the performance enhancer unable to galvanise the group, to coalesce around a workable idea. He looks as lost in the technical area as the players do on the pitch. When they look to the gaffer for direction what do they see? A coach on his haunches with his head in his hands, a manager traumatised by the scale of the task.
Having made the mistake of investing in the market to support one drowning leader last summer, United can ill afford to compound that error with another. To commit to Amorim is to invest in uncertainty, not least that of the coach himself. As he says, it is not only the players who are failing but him.
Six wins in 25 matches. Only 30 goals scored, 41 conceded. Amorim knows there is no future in numbers like that and, perhaps, articulated his own end with shattering honesty.
“I think everybody has to think seriously about a lot of things here. I don’t want to talk about the players. I’m talking about myself. I have that feeling we need to change and we need to be really strong in the summer and to be brave because we will not have a next season like this. If we start like this, or if the feeling is still here, we should give the space to different persons.”
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