Sir Jim Ratcliffe travelled to Carrington yesterday to hold talks with Ruben Amorim and Manchester United staff members.
Whilst sources at the club have sought to make clear these meetings were already scheduled ahead of the Manchester derby, Ratcliffe did chat with Amorim, and you can put your money on the fact that the side’s dismal start to the campaign was challenged by the co-owner.
Ruben Amorim’s job security: What’s been said?
Reports in the aftermath of United’s 3-0 defeat at the Etihad have indicated that Amorim retains the backing of INEOS, despite overseeing the club’s worst start to a campaign in 33 years.
However, one factor that could alter their thinking is that Ratcliffe is said to be confident that the current crop of players at Old Trafford are more than capable of qualifying for the Champions League.
As such, if points continue to be dropped each week and United are only extending their gap from the top end of the table, changes are likely to be made.
INEOS shelled out a whopping £216 million to bolster Amorim’s ranks over the summer window, which included granting him an entirely new frontline in the form of Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha.
Andre Onana, who had leaked goals game after game, was replaced by Senne Lammens and subsequently shipped out on loan to Turkey, so the head coach has no excuses for his system failing.
Inside Ratcliffe’s trip to the training complex
Providing some insight into Ratcliffe’s trip to Carrington, Fabrizio Romano revealed on his YouTube channel, as cited by UtdJoshua03 on X/Twitter: “What Sir Jim Ratcliffe did today in the last hours was to fly into Carrington. Sir Jim Ratcliffe had several meetings, sources at Manchester United make it very clear that those meetings were planned.
“All the meetings were with the people in the management, with people from the staff. All these kinds of meetings were already planned internally even before the Manchester derby result. There was also a direct face-to-face conversation with Ruben Amorim.
“The meeting between Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ruben Amorim was also to discuss the point of view of Amorim. One thing is the press conference in public, one thing is when you talk directly to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the most important person at the club right now, and so this is why Sir Jim Ratcliffe wanted to be involved in the conversation.”
“No excuses for his system failing.”
But it is failing and will continue to. What Amorim is gifting every team we play against is to know exactly what they’re gonna face, and spend as long as they like planning to counter it. They know our formation, worse: they know our midfield is weak so they’ll flood theirs and ours will be over-run, time after time.
Still, going by the players we’ve sold / sent out on loan, it’s good to realise Amorim knows more than the Managers of Barcelona, Chelsea, Napoli, and Real Betis. And presumable more than the Manager of whichever Club Mainoo ends up at.