Well, here we go again. The clown car called Manchester United just tooted its horn, backfired loudly and threw its latest driver out on to Sir Matt Busby Way.
Darren Fletcher is now at the wheel, where Ruben, Ole and so many others have been before. A wheel that seems to come off in the hands of those who attempt to grip it.
Amorim out was inevitable, most pundits seem to agree. He was, variously, out of his depth, not Roy Keane, not Sir Alex Ferguson, barely a manager at all, and didn’t understand the club or its traditions.
Worse, he fell out with the Old Trafford suits who hired him, challenging them to leave him to get on with his job, and suggesting they should focus on getting on with theirs.
That didn’t seem an unreasonable request.
In hindsight, it might have been better if he had kept a straight face after the 1-1 draw with Leeds on Sunday, rather than throwing down the gauntlet in such a public and provocative way.
But should Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Jason Wilcox and co have been surprised by the histrionics? Turns out, the passionate and stubborn manager they lured to the club 14 months ago, remains … passionate and stubborn. To the end.
Yet for this act of predictable defiance, he has been given the boot.
Fourteen months ago, I thought the club should have stuck with Erik ten Hag, and I wish they had kept faith with his successor too.
It seemed to this season-ticket holder that the good in Amorim just about outweighed the bad. He came into the club and bemoaned the lack of proper infrastructure to help the first team, the “entitlement” of some of the players, and set about trying to change things.
Anyone who has been at the club in recent years and watched some of our best-paid players treating the warm-up like it’s an inconvenience must have had sympathy. Tippy-tappy, dawdle and chitchat. Fire the ball over the bar and back in for a cup of tea. I could do that.
Amorim had a plan. The suits liked his plan. And they said he would be given time to see it through. It’s not always been pretty, but half-built houses still look like building sites.
Ratcliffe called for patience. Last October, he said he wanted to give Amorim three years to show what he could do, having months earlier described him as “an outstanding young manager … I think he will be here for a very long time”.
In fact, Amorim got three more months, during which he seems to have become increasingly frustrated by senior people at the club suggesting how he should adapt his tactics to the reality he hadn’t previously been made aware of. The reality being: “We cannot attract the players you want … and best to keep quiet about it ...”
When Ferguson retired in 2013, he asked the fans at Old Trafford to get behind the new manager. That was our job, he said.
Chance would be a fine thing.
Nine managers later (not counting Ruud van Nistelrooy), we are being asked to back a 10th. Fletcher was a combative and relentless player – he’s going to need all of that and more to succeed in the dugout.
It is often said (wrongly) that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and hoping for a different result. This seems to be the formula enthusiastically adopted by the suits at Old Trafford. Perhaps a long hard look in the mirror would be a better place to start.
