Man United’s Portuguese coach Amorim has his work cut out for him. — AFP
EVER since Jim Ratcliffe and his lieutenants announced the arrival of Ruben Amorim, the fans of Manchester United – well most of them – have gone delirious.
Looking at it from the outside, one has got to say it is understandable.
This team has been deprived of any substantial success for more than a decade now, and it’s become a weight too heavy to bear for most.
Yes, there have been a couple of cups or so won at Old Trafford, but the League Cup and FA Cup don’t quite measure up to Chelsea and Liverpool winning the Champions League and Premier League titles over that same period.
And when you think that Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, boss of their bitter cross-town rivals, has 17 trophies in the space of just nine seasons, including the Champions League and six league titles to boot, the blood of any Man United fan begins to boil.
That’s how bad it has been for Man United, and that’s why Amorim’s arrival has been touted as “the beginning of a new era”. Now, whether it pans out like that or not remains to be seen.
Footnotes spoke to numerous folk about Amorim’s arrival and him taking charge for the first time tomorrow at Ipswich.
We asked them about how successful he might be, how long it might take for him to win a trophy or league title, which players might do well under him, and where Man United might finish the season in the league.
Here’s a small sample of what their fans had to say. (For obvious reason we’ve omitted the views of Liverpool fans, as well as those hardcore supporters of Chelsea and Arsenal, never mind those from the blue half of Manchester.)
