Sacking Ruben Amorim Changes Nothing!

Sacking Ruben Amorim Changes Nothing!

By Imo Owo

Am I surprised by Ruben Amorim’s sacking? Not in the slightest. Shock would imply that Manchester United still operates like a serious football club. It does not. What happened to Amorim is simply the latest episode in a decade-long series where incompetence wears black suits and red ties. Let me start from the very top, because the rot is hierarchical.

The Glazers, “owners” in the loosest sense of the word, didn’t buy Manchester United to build it. They bought it to milk it. Think of a farmer who refuses to feed his cow but keeps showing up every morning to collect milk. When the cow starts producing less, he blames the cow. That is Manchester United’s ownership model. Dividends out, investment minimal, infrastructure rotting, squad quality declining. Then everyone blames the coach for poor performances.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox were supposed to represent a break from the past. Sir Jim Ratcliffe was supposed to be the adult in the room. Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox were supposed to be the football brains. Instead, what we’ve witnessed is a masterclass in how to look busy while achieving nothing. Individually and collectively, they have been monumental failures. They make a good decision once, then spend the next six months undoing it with ego-driven, poorly thought-out follow-ups. They hire a manager, sell him a vision, then starve him of the tools needed to execute it. That’s incompetence.

Ruben Amorim deserved better. Not because he was perfect. He wasn’t. But because he was honest. He was the first manager in years who accepted and told the uncomfortable truth: Manchester United are no longer elite. After over a decade of mismanagement, we are a mid-table club pretending to be a giant. Amorim committed to a real rebuild, one that prioritised structure, youth development, and long-term success over quick fixes and PR-friendly wins. That approach was never going to produce instant gratification.

Rebuilding a house with rotten foundations means living in discomfort for a while. Amorim understood this. The hierarchy pretended to. The fans, pundits, and former players never did. Some results were ugly. That’s the price of honesty. But he was slowly fixing things. Sacking him was not going to make the team better. It was always going to make it worse. Especially when the alternative plan appears to be… no plan at all.

Yes, he made a mistake calling out his employers in public. Perhaps, it was even intentional. Managers rarely survive that. But let’s be honest, when you’re driving a broken car, reporting every day that the brakes don’t work, and management keeps telling you to “use the hand brake, it’s our DNA,” the frustration eventually becomes overwhelming.

Let’s not pretend. Most of the players are simply not good enough. I’ve said this for years. Aside from Bruno Fernandes, how many United players walk into the starting XI of Arsenal, Liverpool, or Manchester City. Your answer will tell you everything you need to know about squad depth and quality. Mental fragility, technical inconsistency, and comfort with mediocrity are not coaching issues alone. They are recruitment failures.
And those players didn’t sign themselves. Penny-wise, pound-foolish administrators in red ties did.

Then we have the ex-players turned moral police. Legends of the past who confuse nostalgia with insight. Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, both great players, both failed coaches, both suddenly experts on modern tactical systems they never successfully implemented themselves. “Three at the back doesn’t work.” “United DNA.” “The manager isn’t good enough.” Instead of lending their voices to patience and perspective, they pour petrol on the fire for TV ratings and relevance.

Fans follow suit. A sentimental, impatient, and often toxic fanbase that refuses to accept reality. United are not temporarily struggling. United have fallen. And abusing teenagers and twenty-year-olds for the inability to carry the weight of history they didn’t create is sabotage.

Manchester United is a restaurant owned by businessmen who take daily profits out but refuse to buy quality ingredients. The chef is given stale meat and expired spices, then blamed when customers complain about the food and ratings drop. Sometimes management even buys ingredients the chef didn’t ask for because they were “on discount”. When the chef finally says, “I can’t cook miracles with this unless you do your jobs,” he’s fired. That chef was Ruben Amorim.

Until the Glazers stop draining the club, until the executives stop mistaking arrogance for strategy, until recruitment aligns with coaching, and until fans accept where United truly are, this cycle will repeat.

And I won’t be surprised again.

@highlight @followers