OPINION: Ruben Amorim will be a success as Manchester United manager
On March 5th, 2020, more than four years ago, Amorim's words at his official presentation as Sporting coach went down in Portuguese football history. "What if it goes well?" It did.
After his lightning success at SC Braga, Amorim took over as coach of the first team after a few short months with the B team, replacing Ricardo Sa Pinto on the bench.
He agreed to swap the stability offered by Antonio Salvador to take charge of a bigger club, of course, but with glaring instability, especially in terms of sport.
The similarities are all too evident four years later. Amorim has never hidden his ambitious side and, after agreeing to leave SC Braga for Sporting in the middle of the season and becoming national champion a year later.
He's going to do exactly the same now, swapping the league leaders, the defending champions, with stability probably never seen before in Alvalade, for 14th place in the Premier League, a veritable graveyard of managers since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson. And if it goes well?
Obviously, the news hit like a bombshell. In Alvalade and in Portuguese football. In the Sporting dressing room and among the fans. Manchester United are paying Sporting exactly the same as the Lions paid SC Braga for the young coach.
The difference is that Amorim is now a recognised coach, no longer a promise, but a certainty in Portuguese and world football.
10 million euros is a bargain, a drop in Manchester United's economic ocean, but a real bucket of cold water and never an interesting financial windfall for Sporting.
Just remember that in 2012 (14 years ago!), Chelsea paid Porto 15 million euros to take Andre Villas-Boas, now president at Porto.
In Manchester, Amorim will inherit a team in pieces but, without a shadow of a doubt, a squad far superior to the one he found in Alvalade which immediately led him to look at the academy and promote the likes of Nuno Mendes, Goncalo Inacio, Eduardo Quaresma and Tiago Tomas.
Amorim is ambitious, that's clear, but he's also stubborn. And in Alvalade he made that clear, both in his immediate change of tactical system to the 3-4-3 formation, from Casa Pia to various episodes of quasi-faith.
And when he insisted to the end on having only Paulinho as a striker, before the arrival (and blatant impact) of Viktor Gyokeres.
And he might well be compared to City's Pep Guardiola, who also ended up giving in and "accepting" Erling Haaland, with similar results to Gyokeres.
At United, Amorim won't have Gyokeres or Paulinho, but he will have Rasmus Hojlund, another Nordic, and Joshua Zirkzee, a Dutchman.
Can we draw parallels? I think so because it's common knowledge that the coach will change (almost everything) at Old Trafford, from the tactical system to the way he communicates - and his English, although rusty, will do just fine in the early days.
At United, he won't have the "special" Pedro Goncalves or the "boring" Nuno Santos, but he will have a faithful squire in Bruno Fernandes, his new Sebastian Coates, with the captain's armband – an extension of the coach on the pitch and the right arm to quickly implement his ideas.
Of course, questions are being asked about the ability of a 39-year-old Portuguese coach to halt Manchester United's downward spiral. The same was also done with Villas-Boas at Chelsea. It was even done with Jose Mourinho.
It's only natural. Who, on March 5th, 2020, believed that this young coach, for whom Sporting would earn 10 million euros, would turn the club into the most stable and main contender for the Portuguese league title? I'd say, apart from himself, Frederico Varandas and Hugo Viana, albeit on the back foot. It went well. It went very well.
Above Amorim's own expectations, there was little left to fulfil in Alvalade apart from the double championship he'd be able to celebrate in May at the Marques.
And I have no doubt that he'll come to Old Trafford with a smile and a sense of fulfilment. Because Amorim is more than ready for the Premier League. There are no questions. He'll do well. Full stop.
