“I am a little bit of a dreamer,” smiled Ruben Amorim. “Call me naive, but I truly feel that I am the right man in the right moment.” That was at his unveiling as Manchester United manager, before the dream turned into a nightmare, before naivety felt the least of his mistakes. As Amorim’s reign of error ends, it is apparent that it was the wrong moment for him. But also that he was the wrong man.
Amorim had the charisma to be United manager, just not the results, and a host of new candidates are already gathering. Old Trafford has been the theatre of broken dreams in the last dozen years, but if none of the men who followed Sir Alex Ferguson could truly be called a success, none failed quite like Amorim. When United hired him, they felt he was the most exciting young coach in Europe. He left Sporting CP with a 100 per cent record in the Portuguese league and second in the Champions League. He left United with a 38.71 win percentage, comparable with those of Wilf McGuinness and Frank O’Farrell, and the possibility he was their worst manager since the 1930s. In his parting press conference at Leeds on Sunday, he said that “every department needs to do their job”. Over 14 months, he did not do his remotely well enough.
