The co-owner of the English top club wants to stick with the Portuguese team manager despite the criticism.
Despite the meager record so far with Manchester United, the much-criticized team manager Ruben Amorim (40) should get a lot of time to develop the team. This has now been made clear by Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire co-owner of the 20-time English football champion.
“Ruben has to be able to show over three years that he is a great coach. That’s how I see it,” Ratcliffe said in the podcast “The Business,” produced by the Times and the Sunday Times.
The 72-year-old considers the previous criticism of the Portuguese’s work to be premature. “Sometimes I don’t understand the press. They want instant success, they think it’s like a light switch: you press it and tomorrow everything will be rosy,” Ratcliffe said. A club like United cannot be run on such a basis.
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Amorim took over the job from Erik ten Hag in Manchester in November 2024, and the team finished the season in 15th place, the club’s worst result in 50 years. Things are not going much better this season either, United are tenth, lost three of their first seven games and failed in the League Cup against fourth division Grimsby Town.
Amorim, previously successful with Sporting Lisbon, should be given the necessary time. Ratcliffe owns less than a third of the shares in the club, which is still majority-owned by the American Glazer family. However, the Englishman is in charge of the sporting management. Ratcliffe therefore does not expect any interference from the Glazers with regard to Amorim: “That will not happen.”