Rúben Amorim or whoever succeeds Erik ten Hag as Manchester United’s manager will have a limited budget to strengthen the squad in January.
After Ten Hag was backed in the summer with a £200m spend on five players – Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Manuel Ugarte – there is only modest finance to try to turn around the side’s fortunes in the winter window.
Although the manager will not have to sell to buy, profitability and sustainability rules mean the books will need to be balanced via sales if he wants to spend more lavishly. About £600m has been invested in building a squad for Ten Hag over the five windows of his two-plus seasons in charge.
Beyond Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Højlund and Kobbie Mainoo, who are ringfenced as not for sale, United have a paucity of high-end assets, with Marcus Rashford, who could draw about £60m, perhaps of the highest value.
The indications are that Amorim wants the job and that it is a matter of United settling compensation with Sporting, where his contract has a €10m (£8.3m) release clause for such a move. Sources have said Amorim can be prone to late changes of mind but at this stage it appears United should get a deal done.
Sporting play a cup game at home to Nacional on Tuesday night and United are not sure they would have Amorim in place for Sunday’s game at home to Chelsea even if their negotiations with him and the Portuguese club run smoothly.
United are 14th in the Premier League after nine games, with 11 points, eight goals and a goal difference of -3. In the Europa League they are 21st of 36 teams after drawing their opening three matches.
Manchester City’s manager, Pep Guardiola, expressed sympathy for Ten Hag. “I always feel sorry for the managers who lose their position, so I’m so sorry for him,” he said. “I have a good, incredible relation with him; I think he represents Manchester United in the highest level in terms of behaviour.”
Arne Slot, who has faced Ten Hag in the Premier League and Eredivisie, believes his Dutch compatriot will soon get another job with a leading club. “[I know] how well he did at Ajax and that he won two trophies over here so we will see him I think in the near future at a big club again,” Liverpool’s head coach said.
