If your boss flies in via helicopter when your record is the worst of anyone in your role for the past 80 years, you fear the worst.
When billions of his own money is on the line, that overlord is entitled to seek answers. However, Sir Jim Ratcliffe was not in town this week to be wielding any axes just yet, despite what a growing number of Manchester United supporters believe would be the best way forward.
The i Paper understands Ratcliffe is willing to be as patient as possible with beleaguered Ruben Amorim, understanding the magnitude of what the Portuguese is trying to achieve under the utmost scrutiny. Change is afoot across all areas of the club, and away from results, Ineos believe progress is being made.
The meetings that took place between Ratcliffe and Amorim this week had been scheduled for some time, but the timing still seemed ominous – especially after the sudden arrival of the billionaire.
United have worn Amorim down. As is often the case around these parts, he has aged well beyond the 10 months he has been at the helm. With his job on the line, you would have thought a head coach, with opinion polls nearing military-coup levels, would be readying some barbed defiance when facing questions.
But on Friday, as he was grilled on his failing methodology and what Ratcliffe thinks of it all, he immediately lightened the mood.
“He was offering me a new contract,” Amorim joked about their meeting.
“It’s normal things just to show the support. Explaining that it’s a long project. He said many times, this is my first [full] season.
“I spoke with him, with [chief executive] Omar [Berrada], with [director of football] Jason [Wilcox] to try to see all the data around the team. It was a normal meeting and we had several. In this moment it’s normal people pay attention to that.”
The vote of confidence from a club owner is often a poisoned chalice, but Ratcliffe has taken a more overarching viewpoint than most. He wants improvement across the board: the best facilities, an individual elite ethos, a transfer strategy to envy. In all these areas, progress is being made, with Amorim playing a big part in that.
Even though results suggest otherwise, improvements are being made on the pitch too. United lead the way in the Premier League in terms of shots at goal. The fact so few are leading to goals is another matter, but after a season where attacking threat was embarrassingly conspicuous by its absence, just worrying the opposition is something at least – another indicator of how far this team has fallen.
“I think we are playing well until we reach the boxes,” Amorim added.
“We need to be more clinical. And if you see the number of shots, the xG [expected goals], all these things are good. But if you don’t score, it doesn’t matter, if you don’t win games.
“The way we suffer the goals, we can avoid that. We are being naive. We need to be more aggressive in order to win games. We just have to play the way we are playing, but while improving in the opponent’s box and our box. That was the focus of the week.”
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Bringing up positive xG is not going to win over the growing number of naysayers, but results will. The numbers don’t show it, but Amorim has done a lot right since coming to our shores. He is also very likeable – you want him to succeed.
Ratcliffe has seen enough to give the manager with the worst post-war United record more time. Bringing him in mid-season last term was not what anyone wanted, so the scrutiny, from the ownership, has only really properly begun since the start of the current campaign.
The early signs aren’t great, but there’s time to alter the course of Amorim’s coaching trajectory. Ratcliffe will give him time to do that. The question remains whether United supporters will do the same.
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