Manchester United are reportedly closing in on their top managerial target Ruben Amorim even though the Sporting Lisbon coach said \u201cnothing is decided yet\u201d when it came to him replacing the sacked Erik ten Hag.<\/p>\n
As United prepared on Wednesday to play their first game since they dismissed Ten Hag, facing Leicester in the League Cup at Old Trafford, behind the scenes 39-year-old Amorim appears to be their number one choice to take over the hotseat.<\/p>\n
United pulled the plug on Ten Hag\u2019s two-year reign as manager on Monday after a 2-1 defeat by West Ham left them 14th in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
Amorim quickly emerged as the leading contender to succeed the Dutchman and Sporting issued a statement to the Lisbon stock exchange on Tuesday confirming United were willing to meet his 10-million-euro ($10.8 million) release clause.<\/p>\n
Sky Sports on Wednesday quoted a source at Sporting saying Amorim\u2019s move at Old Trafford was a \u201cdone deal\u201d, but the club remained tightlipped.<\/p>\n
Amorim was guarded when asked after Sporting\u2019s League Cup win against Nacional on Tuesday if it was his last match with the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody knows whether this was my farewell match. Nothing is decided yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite spending heavily in the transfer market in the summer, Ten Hag paid the price for United\u2019s poor start to the season.<\/p>\n
They have won just one of their last eight games in all competitions.<\/p>\n
United have appointed Ruud van Nistelrooy as interim boss but Amorim, who is considered one of Europe\u2019s leading young coaches, is reportedly the leading contender to take over on a permanent basis.<\/p>\n
The former Portugal international midfielder has won two Portuguese titles with Sporting since joining the club in March 2020.<\/p>\n
He was briefly linked with the manager\u2019s role at Liverpool after Jurgen Klopp announced he was leaving and went as far as holding talks with West Ham this year, before they appointed former Spain coach Julen Lopetegui.<\/p>\n
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Amorim would be one of the youngest managers in the Premier League if appointed by United.<\/p>\n
But Pep Guardiola, who has guided United\u2019s UAE-backed neighbours Manchester City to an unprecedented four successive Premier League titles, insisted Amorim\u2019s age was not an issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is it a problem?\u201d said City manager Guardiola. \u201cI started at Barcelona, at 37 years old, coming into the fourth division.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowledge is knowledge. If you are able, it doesn\u2019t matter\u2026What\u2019s important is talent. If you are good, age doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d the Spaniard added.<\/p>\n
Van Nistelrooy, who will take charge against Leicester, said in the matchday programme he was \u201csaddened\u201d by Ten Hag\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n
The former United forward added it was \u201ca great honour to manage the club I love for however long I am asked to do so\u201d.<\/p>\n
Whoever the new United manager is, they will inherit a squad largely built by Ten Hag that includes several players who have proven to be expensive failures.<\/p>\n
The most glaring example is Antony, the Brazilian forward signed for nearly \u00a390 million from Ten Hag\u2019s former club Ajax in 2022, who has scored just 12 goals in 87 appearances.<\/p>\n
United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe reviewed Ten Hag\u2019s progress in the summer after the club finished eighth in the league but won the FA Cup with a shock victory over Manchester City.<\/p>\n
The club were also believed to have spoken to other potential managers but decided to retain Ten Hag and handed him millions for new players.<\/p>\n
But Ten Hag was sacked because United, who last won the Premier League in 2013, have shown little improvement this season.<\/p>\n
The former Ajax coach, who joined United in May 2022, argued in his final days in charge he deserved respect for winning the League Cup in 2023 and the FA Cup a year later.<\/p>\n
In comments embargoed until Tuesday, Ten Hag said before the Leicester match he thought winning a trophy in his third season would make it a success.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely, it\u2019s about trophies,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you win a trophy in pro football, that is most important because that is what the fans expect and what we expect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 after leading United to a record 20th league title, five full-time managers have come and gone at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n
The post Manchester United eyeing Amorim even as he says \u2018nothing decided yet\u2019<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Manchester United eyeing Amorim even as he says \u2018nothing decided yet\u2019<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Manchester United are reportedly closing in on their top managerial target Ruben Amorim even though the Sporting Lisbon coach said \u201cnothing is decided yet\u201d when it came to him replacing the sacked Erik ten Hag. As United prepared on Wednesday to play their first game since they dismissed Ten Hag, facing Leicester in the League […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}