Ruben Amorim has showed there is only so far a manager can push it.
Just like Enzo Maresca’s hasty exit last week from Chelsea, challenging the leadership in public has ended in the sack for Amorim.
How much more say should he have on transfers? More, he claimed.
Disputing his own job title in a news conference after Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Leeds inflamed tensions further with the Old Trafford hierarchy.
The Portuguese said he should have the more powerful “manager” title rather the head coach role he was actually appointed to in November 2024.
Poor results and no trophies
Amorim arrived with no experience of the Premier League and was only 39 years old, but he had won silverware in Lisbon with Sporting.
He couldn’t deliver any in his 14 months at Old Trafford, losing the Europa League final against a struggling Tottenham side last May – coupled with a 15th place finish in the Premier League.
And United suffered humiliation in August by losing to fourth-tier Grimsby in the League Cup.
Questions over his tactical inflexibility had grown, as relations are said to have soured with director of football Jason Wilcox.
Will anything really change?
So United are looking for their seventh permanent manger since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 and look no closer to reaching his heights any time soon, with the Red Devils sixth in the league.
Their prospects are also looking no better with a new-look leadership since the owning Glazers ceded day-to-day control to INEOS billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
If anything the mood in the club is becoming more tempestuous.
Not only has Sir Jim’s first pick of mangers gone awry, but there’s unhappiness throughout the club over the job cuts and cost-savings.
Read more from Sky News:
Arctic blitz set to continue
New eye tests for drivers over-70
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
And the next manager will want to know there are funds to strengthen the squad. How much power will they have and want over the spending?
That could determine their future as much as results, as Amorim has shown.
