Sir Alex Ferguson has stated it could take Manchester United another “10 or 11 years” to win the title, prompting Ruben Amorim to publicly disagree with the club’s most successful manager.
Ferguson won 13 of United’s 20 league titles, the last in 2013, and was asked when a 21st may be added to the trophy cabinet.
“It could be 10 years, could be 11,” Ferguson told Press Box PR. “I remember looking back on my own time, starting off [in November 1986] when Liverpool were the bee’s knees. They were a fantastic club, winning the European Cup four times, but then it took them 31 [actually 30] years to win the league again [after 1990]. We are now in the same situation [as Liverpool in the 1990s].”
Amorim responded diplomatically but suggested the wait for another title would not extend to a decade. “He [Ferguson] understands football more than me, especially English football,” the Portuguese said. “We will not take that long to win a league [though] I don’t know which manager [will be here then].”
Amorim criticised what he described as a sense of “entitlement” among some United players. Last Sunday the head coach, questioned about why he did not use more youth players, said Harry Amass was “struggling” on loan at Sheffield Wednesday and Chido Obi was not always starting for United’s under-21s. Amass responded by posting a picture of himself with Wednesday’s player of the month award for November, and Obi posted an image of him scoring for the under-21s. Each was deleted soon afterwards.
Amorim said: “It is the feeling of entitlement that we have in our club. Nowadays they speak and go against the club because they feel entitlement and then we have legends of the club saying: ‘If you don’t play, leave.’
We have to fight against this feeling. The players sometimes forget what it means to play for Manchester United. The door to my office is open, nobody is coming to talk to me and that is the way we can solve things so I think we need to change as a club.”
Amorim’s comments come after the former United player Paul Scholes said Kobbie Mainoo should join Chelsea and Mainoo’s half-brother Jordan Kwadwo Osei Mainoo-Hames wore a “Free Kobbie Mainoo” T-shirt at Monday’s 4-4 draw with Bournemouth and posted the image on Instagram. Mainoo is yet to start in the league this season. Amorim said he would not take action against the 20-year-old for his half-brother’s behaviour.
“It was not Kobbie that wore the T-shirt,” he said. “He is not going to start because of the T-shirt or go to the bench because of it. He is going to play if he is the right player to play. I am not going to do something to Kobbie because someone in his family is doing something. And he played really well [when coming on versus Villa] so that is the important thing.”
Casemiro is suspended for Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa, and Amorim has previously said Mainoo could be capable one day of playing in the Brazilian’s holding role. Amorim spoke in the summer of how he wanted a leadership group to deal with certain problems to lessen his workload, and was asked whether the incident involving Mainoo’s half-brother was an example. “It continues a bit – everything is on my desk, but my door is still open,” he said.
It emerged this week that Amorim’s captain, Bruno Fernandes, believes the hierarchy wanted him to leave in the summer window, and in a previous one. Amorim was asked about this and Fernandes’s claim that some teammates do not value United as he does. The midfielder had been speaking with the Portuguese Football Federation’s in-house channel.
Amorim said: “He spoke with the club before that interview and we can avoid these things, but he talked with the board and everything is clear. I don’t know if it is fair [the claim about teammates]. He spoke his feelings and he needs to answer for that, not me.”
