The Man Utd Problem: Can Amorim really fix United? - A Case Study in Failure

Who is the right man?

Manchester United are certainly in a rot and have been for number of years. The latest fool to try and fix the mess, Rueben Amorim, certainly has a big hole to dig himself and United out of.

The question constantly asked is “is he the right man?”. It’s a question asked of Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho, Solskjær, Rangnick and Ten Hag. Were any of them the right man to sit in the managers chair following the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson? If you have ever read Fergie’s autobiography you will have read stories about his standards and how the club was at the heart of everything.

For me, the biggest thing missing from the Red Devils is standards across the board. Since Sir Alex and David Gill have left Manchester United standards have fallen. Not only have they fallen, they have been allowed to fall. What Sir Alex had was akin to a dynasty. His legacy came from success and his success became his legacy. It wasn’t always so as the former Aberdeen manager had slow start to life at Old Trafford and stories from the time seem to indicate he was close to the sack…how different history could have been eh…

The Genius of ‘92

The class of ‘92 was genius and hasn’t even been close to being replicated anywhere else. Since Alan Hansen uttered the immortal words “You’ll never win anything with kids”. What Alan maybe didn’t realise was it was never just about the ability of those players. It was moulding them into the standard setters. It was using them as conduits for the managers bidding. It was implementing standards to other players who were around and who came in. If anyone ever fell out of line with the standards or thought they were beyond them, they were shown the door. Maintaining discipline is important for a unit to function. It’s almost militaristic or regimental, you need loyal footmen who support the leadership through thick and thin. A story as old as time.

You might be thinking that analogy is a bit strong or ridiculous but consider how a lot of his former players speak about Fergie in the highest of regard and still call him the boss. In contrast to the current situation at Old Trafford, I don’t think anyone really trusts anyone. That’s both on and off the pitch. I think players like Harry Maguire and Amad Diallo would have thrived under Ferguson and players like Bruno Fernandes wouldn’t have got a look in. Allowing players like Victor Lindelof to hang around as long as they did is the perfect example of falling standards. A player who was never good enough for United yet somehow seemed to be a comfortable part of the furniture until he was released in the summer.

Who is to blame?

It’s not like previous managers like Van Gaal, Mourinho and Ten Hag didn’t have success before joining United. They were successful in their own right and have the medals to prove it. As does Amorim from his time as Sporting Lisbon Manager. So how can some of Europe’s finest managers can go into a club the size and magnitude of Manchester United and fail? Well it’s partially Fergies fault in my opinion. It’s no secret that Sir Alex ran the show when he was in charge of the entire football operation. When he left, you have to ask, what filled that chasm? Well ultimately, it seems half hearted non football people because the standards fell quite quickly as not long into Moyes reign they were signing players like Fellani who they brought in for nearly £30m. No offence to the Belgian Midfielder but while he was very good at Everton he was a player Fergie wouldn’t go near.

Juan Mata is a signing that made sense, in terms of quality, but nothing ever came in to back that up. It didn’t take long at all for the wheels to come off for Moyes or any other managers and now Amorim looks like another manager they will toss by the wayside. The chasm left by Gill and Ferguson has never been filled and any attempts to try, have quickly fell apart. What Sir Alex had was complete leverage and if the club had foresight, they would have gradually and carefully built a successful football department lead by someone who understood the club and understood success. Who could that have been? Well that’s a tough question because the Director of Football role was still seen as club overreach at the time but ultimately we have seen the decline of the role of the “manager” in top level football, to be replaced by Head Coach. There are plenty of clubs you could look at now say the Red Devils should do that but the reality is, football was very different back then.

While some trophies have been won along the way by some managers, it’s felt like they won out of spite rather then joy and success. Van Gal winning the FA cup and taking it to the press conference knowing he will probably be sacked should have sent shivers down the spine of the United board. He wasn’t a great manager but he won, he had standards, it’s a start, it’s better than what’s been before. Yet Ten Hag won trophies, Mourinho won trophies, it always seemed to fall apart eventually. Why? I tend to look above the manager in those situations. Something isn’t connecting because success should not be followed by failure in football. You have to take a step back look at the executive leadership to see what’s going wrong.

Edward Woodward replaced David Gill and it’s fair to say, he failed miserably and that failure has continued right through to the Sir Jim Ratcliffe era. I’ll never get my head around Gary Neville suggesting to the INEOS owner that a sporting dinner could raise funds to carry on the former players fund after it was cut to save money and his response was “nobody suggested it”. How can a man be so successful yet so blind to easy wins? Here in lies Manchester United’s problem. It’s too corporate. It is ran by corporate people, for corporate people in order to sell corporate merchandise to customers and consumers.

Losing Touch with Football

Far too many decisions at United are made for the wrong reasons. Signing Paul Pogba, made sense to a degree. However when the shirt sales exploded and more or less funded his transfer, what the executives at United saw was an opportunity to exploit its customers. It’s why they re-signed Ronaldo, it’s why they signed Sancho, they weren’t footballing decisions, they were commercial ones. Now that they find themselves with a club with no soul, no direction and poor leadership. When they have then tried to make footballing decisions, they make terrible decisions because they don’t know what they are doing. Amorim stated time and time again, he didn’t want to join mid-season. Yet he was essentially told it’s now or never so I don’t blame him for jumping.

Eric Ten Hag was abandoned by the executives over Jadon Sancho. He couldn’t back down without appearing weak and Sancho wouldn’t back down. At that point, the hierarchy should have stepped in and mediated or found a solution. They didn’t and now they are still paying Sancho a fortune because they can’t shift him. Look at Ronaldo’s return, do I think Christiano Ronaldo was more of a hinderance than a help? yes, I think his attitude was not what the club needed. They needed leadership and not more people moaning about the club. Sunderland fans have seen what bad decision after bad decision looks like and the end result is never a positive one. If Ratcliffe was an intelligent man, he’d build a football executive committee made up of some of the best football people out there interlaced with people like Carrick, Solskjær and Van Der Sar. People who understand the club and introduce others like Dougie Freedman and Ian Graham who have built a career of success within football. You can have corporate people but they cannot run or control a club the size of Manchester United.

Legacy? What Legacy?

I do wonder where the legacy of Sir Alex will be in the next 20/25 years. Will he be seen as the reason for the downfall of a great club or will it lie and the foot of the Glazers and Ratcliffe? I haven’t mentioned them in this article as much because while controversy has surrounded them for years. Since selling the football side to INEOS has anything really improved? They haven’t helped over the years but I don’t think they are the root cause of the problems, I would call them absent owners absolutely, a bit like Ellis Short was by the end of his reign at Sunderland. They are just part of the problem that has been allowed to build in the club. Again like Sunderland, rot and badly placed people allowed the club sink and erode. If you want to see change, you need a gradual restoration programme. It takes years to get through and I don’t think the Red Devils have even started the recovery process yet.

I don’t envisage us seeing Manchester United at the top end of the league for a while yet and until the house is in order from top to bottom, it never will be again. In the meantime all we can do is hope they release Amad Diallo from his torture and allow him to return to his promised land.