Manchester United perfectly embodies the saying “when you love, you don’t count”. After a poor start to the championship and its worst start to a season in more than thirty years, the Mancun football club fired its coach, Eric ten Hag, at the end of October. Extended at the beginning of summer (until 2026), the Dutch coach is released from his contract for the handsome sum of 16 million euros – according to The telegraph. To replace him, the ‘red devils’ have set their eyes on Rubén Amorim, whose hiring they formalized on Friday the 1stAhem November.
A brilliant representative of the young guard of European coaches, the 39-year-old Portuguese coach was not left free. Since 2020, he has played brilliantly on the bench for Sporting Portugal (two national championships), with whom he will have to face Manchester United’s neighbor, Manchester City, on Tuesday in the Champions League. To get him, the United management had to take out the checkbook and pay a clause of more than 10 million euros. Because, in 2024, the transfer window no longer concerns only the players, who the clubs exchange for crazy sums: the coaches, in turn, are transferable.
Recruited by the northern English club during the season, Ruben Amorim does not immediately slam the door on the Lisbon team. He will only join Manchester United after November 11. “once you have fulfilled all your obligations” towards the Lisbon club, the Red Devils specify in a press release. Meanwhile, the club’s former glory Ruud van Nistelrooy takes over.
Between the compensation for the transfer and that owed to Erik ten Hag, the operation amounts to around 30 million euros for Manchester United, owned by the Ineos group and British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe.
The Amorim case, a coveted coach
If turning to a new coach during the season is quite common in football (usually it is the first fuse), clubs that pay large sums to secure the services of an already hired coach remain rare. And one of the pioneers is none other than… Ruben Amorim. In 2020, the young coach had already been signed by Sporting during the season after paying a clause of 10 million euros to his then club, SC Braga.
If Bayern Munich had made a fortune in 2021 (German media mention a sum of 25 million euros) to acquire the services of Julian Nagelsmann, then on the RB Leipzig bench, it is above all on the other side of the Spot where the practice of transfer window for coaches is in full swing. The richest championship in the world – for the 2023-2024 financial year, the English championship received nearly 4 billion euros in television rights, according to figures from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) –, including the teams are spending enormous amounts of money To recruit players to strengthen them, the Premier League is starting to do the same with coaches.
In November 2021, Aston Villa paid more than four million euros to Glasgow Rangers to sign Steven Gerrard. When the operation was not completed, a year later the villains hired the Spanish Unai Emery, then Villarreal coach, for six million euros. But the London club is still far from its neighbor Chelsea. In September 2022, the ‘bleus’ hired Graham Potter, then stationed at Brighton, for 24 million euros, before dismissing him seven months later due to lack of results. Instead of a direct dismissal, the British coach continues to receive compensation of 200,000 euros per week, according to the daily mail.
If Manchester United chose to take out the wallet to acquire the services of Rubén Amorim, it was also because the competition was tough. The coach with an innovative game and convincing results (9 wins in 9 games, 30 goals scored and only 2 conceded this season in the League) was courted by several European teams, starting with Manchester City, which saw in him a possible successor to Pep Guardiola. . , whose contract ends in 2025. “ Since he arrived at Sporting, the team has played the most beautiful football. “He has all the qualities to shine in English, French or Spanish football.”Manchester United’s Portuguese international Bruno Fernandes stood out in October. Starting on November 11, the midfielder will be in the front row, in the “Theater of Dreams” at Old Trafford, to check if his prediction about his compatriot was correct.
