By 90min | Created at 2024-11-12 20:56:57 | Updated at 2024-11-18 04:35:27
5 days ago
Manchester United fans are so keen for Ruben Amorim to start work that a 'sighting' of the plane carrying him from Lisbon to north west England was posted on social media on Monday afternoon.
Thankfully, it wasn't long before the club shared pictures of him actually arriving at Carrington.
A delay in Amorim being granted a visa to work in the UK has pushed back his ability to get down to business, although with his first match not until 24 November, after the international break, and many players in the first-team squad now away for the next ten days, it doesn't change much.
Amorim is the sixth permanent managerial appointment since Sir Alex Ferguson called time on his legendary career more than 11 years ago, but the first to be termed 'head coach'. It’s a subtle difference but reflects the changing structures of top flight English football clubs.
The reason the Portuguese got the job in the first place was his record with Sporting CP. That was reported earlier this year to be enough to put West Ham United off, a perceived lack of experience. But the Red Devils jumped at the chance to hire one of Europe’s brightest coaching talents, with Erik ten Hag only just out of the door when the approach began.
Amorim is just 39 years of age, making him United's youngest managerial appointment since a 31-year-old Wilf McGuinness succeeded Sir Matt Busby in 1969. But he has crammed a lot in so far, going into management in Portugal’s third tier in 2018, a year after an injury-plagued playing career ended at 32. Amorim then delivered a Portuguese league cup to Braga and within a couple of months was poached by Sporting for a vast, not just by Portuguese standards, €10m sum.
Sporting reaped the rewards from that display of faith in his ability. In Amorim's first full season, he ended a 19-year Primeira Liga title drought – and only the club's third domestic triumph in nearly 40 years after long since falling behind rivals Benfica and Porto. Amorim also won a league cup with Sporting that season, and another the next, before a second Primeira Liga in 2023/24.
He hasn't matched Jose Mourinho's Porto record in UEFA competitions, but Europe is much more of a closed shop these days than it was even 20 years ago. His team did, however, knock Arsenal out of the Europa League last 16 in 2022/23, while one of his final games in charge yielded a shock 4-1 demolition of a walking wounded Manchester City that sent shockwaves across Europe.
Sporting came from behind to beat Braga in the Primeira Liga / MIGUEL RIOPA/GettyImages
Required to serve a short notice period at Sporting, that City annihilation came during Amorim's glorious farewell. On the day of Manchester United's announcement, Sporting won 5-1 against Estrela Amadora, followed by Pep Guardiola's City, and setting up a final game in charge this past weekend. Ironically, it took him back to former club Braga one last time.
Braga actually took the lead midway through the first half courtesy of Ricardo Horta, a player who had thrived under Amorim's leadership. The same player then put the hosts 2-0 on the stroke of half-time, seriously threatening Sporting’s perfect winning start to the season.
Hidemasa Morita eventually pulled one back just before the hour mark. But Sporting were still trailing with ten minutes to go, until captain Morten Hjulmand levelled things up. Amorim and his players weren’t satisfied with a draw and continued to press right to the end, taking the lead for the first time in the game in the 89th minute through Conrad Harder. The Danish forward's quickfire second in stoppage time then made sure of the 4-2 victory.
Remarkably, it was only a second league game this season in which prolific striker Viktor Gyokeres, now being linked with most of Europe's big clubs, didn't find the net. The Swede, of Coventry City as recently as 2022/23, had scored seven times in his previous two games and 23 across the season.
Beating Braga made it 11 wins from 11 games to start the 2024/25 Primeira Liga for Sporting. Amorim leaves successor Joao Pereira, promoted to the first-team hotseat from the B squad, with a six-point lead over Porto at the top. Taking into account the end of last season, Sporting have now won 14 in a row in the league, while they haven't lost in the league since December 2023, and haven’t failed to win a home league match since May 2023 – two and a half years ago.
