Sir Jim Ratcliffe insists he has no intention of sacking Ruben Amorim and has indicated that the Manchester United head coach could be given three years to prove himself.
Amorim has been under pressure after a poor start to the season, and admitted before last weekend’s win over Sunderland that he was running out of time to save his job if results didn’t improve.
It followed a painful defeat at Brentford a week earlier and assurances from Ineos sources that Ratcliffe still backed Amorim and was prepared to let him stay in charge for the rest of the season.
The message from United was more measured but insiders still insisted that no replacements had been lined up and any talk over Amorim’s future was speculation.
Asked on Wednesday what would happen if the club’s majority owners, the Glazer family, told him to sack Amorim, Ratcliffe said: ‘It’s not going to happen.
‘He has not had the best of seasons. Ruben needs to demonstrate he is a great coach over three years. That’s where I would be.
‘You can’t run a club like Manchester United on knee-jerk reactions. You know, you flick a switch and it’s all going to be roses tomorrow.’
Despite beating Sunderland, Amorim has lost three of his seven Premier League games this season and crashed out of the Carabao Cup to Grimsby.
Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has given Ruben Amorim his full backing amid speculation over the Portuguese coach’s future at the club
The Portuguese boss has had a difficult start to life in Manchester since joining from Sporting Lisbon just under a year ago, with United currently 10th in the Premier League
The 40-year-old is approaching his first anniversary in charge after being appointed at the start of last November, midway through United’s worst campaign in more than half a century.
It would cost £12million in compensation to sack him before that date, but minority owner Ratcliffe claims the Glazers are happy for him to run the club on a day-to-day basis.
‘That probably sums it up,’ he told The Business podcast, produced by The Times and The Sunday Times.
‘We’re local and they’re the other side of the pond. That’s a long way away to try and manage a football club as big as complex as Manchester United. We’re here with feet on the ground.
‘They get a bad rap … but they are really nice people and they are really passionate about the club.’
Ratcliffe has also come under fire for ordering 450 redundancies and a raft of other cuts – including scrapping free staff lunches – across the club to invest more in the first team and reduce losses.
United are currently 10th in the Premier League, having won three, drawn one and lost three matches in the top flight so far this campaign
Last month United reported record revenues of £666.5m for last season but a loss of £33m for the financial year.
‘The costs were just too high,’ Ratcliffe added. ‘There are some fantastic people at Manchester United, but there was also a level of mediocrity and it had become bloated.
‘I got a lot of flak for the free lunches, but no-one’s ever given me a free lunch.
‘The biggest correlation, like it or not, between results and any external factor is profitability. The more cash you have got, the better squad you can build.
‘So a lot of what we have done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing.
‘We’re not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we’ve done in this set of results and we were not in the Champions League.
Ratcliffe has doubled down on his appointment, his first after inheriting Erik ten Hag from the previous regime, and insisted that there’s no chance of the Glazers asking him to fire his man
‘Those numbers will get better. Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high-level of football.’
His comments come off the back of Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher claiming it is ‘inevitable’ that the 40-year-old will be sacked from his job before Christmas.
Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet, Carragher said: ‘I don’t like saying a manager should be sacked – it’s disrespectful and it’s a man’s job – but I’m at that point where I do think Ruben Amorim’s job is untenable.
‘It’s inevitable that this is going to happen before Christmas. His stats are unbelievable for a Manchester United manager – 50 games as Manchester United manager, he’s only scored two more goals than he’s conceded.’
