Ruben Amorim has not been playing around since becoming the new Manchester United manager last season.
Both publicly and in private he has set new standards and is on a mission to change the toxic culture.
For over a decade now the Red Devils have been struggling both on and off the pitch.
A lot of it has come down to the culture behind the scenes.
Amorim is here to change that.
And he has just had his most explosive interview yet.
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Ruben Amorim had a press conference at Chicago’s Fire training centre with quotes via the Athletic.
Amorim starts off talking about his dynamic relationship with Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
“We speak on the phone, he sends me messages, and he sends me GIFs. You call them GIFs? Joking.”
“So we have this kind of relationship.”
Amorim continues. “It’s really easy to deal with Jim. Easy in the sense that if you know your stuff, if you know how to explain any decision, you’ll be fine with him.
“If you try to use some bullshit in big words with him, he’s going to knock you.”
“So, for me, it’s really easy. I will say whatever I need to say with a lot of respect, like with everybody.”
“I know that he’s the owner of the club; I know my place. But when I need to say something, I will say it naturally, with no bullshit—I can say that—with no bullshit.”
“I’m not around the subject, I’m really direct. I think it’s something that he likes a lot.”
Amorim then starts talking about his current mood with United.
“Nowadays I can feel more excited.”
“I learned a lot. Small things. How to build up (to a game).”
“How to sometimes not be so romantic.”
“All these things are gone now.”
“I truly believe that I will be better managing the season.”
Amorim then starts discussing the possibility of walking away.
“Walk away is more an ego thing”.
“I’m like that. If you saw Sporting: I won the league and we had second place in the next year.”
“In the third year, when we lost Matheus Nunes, Joao Palhinha, and all these guys, we were fourth in the league, and I put my place (up for discussion).”
“It’s a thing that my agent says, you don’t need to sign a big contract.”
“Because when things go bad, I put my place.”
“I’m maybe really romantic about things.”
Amorim then reiterated the point in the past where he is being backed by the club.
“I always felt that.”
“In some moments last season, I was more concerned about me than them. They always show support.”
“If you try to remember one big team that lost so many games and the manager kept their job, you will not find it.”
“So that shows more than words that they support me.”
Amorim then talks about how long he wants to stay at United for.
“I want to stay 20.” when talking about how many years he wants to stay for.
“That is my goal, and I truly believe in that. Something will happen.”
“In some moments, I will be lucky.”
“I had a lot of luck during my career as a manager, and my idea is to stay for many years.”
“Results will dictate that. And I know that all the credit I had when I arrived… last year was used on that. But I’m ready to start fresh.”
Amorim then starts talking about the difference between his time at Sporting and United so far.
“If you look, Sporting was the same thing. They said that in three months, I’m out.”
“They said that I had a three percent chance of winning one title with Sporting.”
“The pressure is different (at United). But I don’t like to change clubs.”
“I like to bond with people and carry on. I was waiting for the right club.”
“It sounds crazy, but I chose this club. I had the feeling. Until I can, I will stay here.”
“This is not the moment that I felt more pressure in my life.”
“I had my career as a player, and I finished really quickly because of the injuries.”
“I remember that me and my wife, we had an Excel (spreadsheet) with all the money that we have, all the things that I need.”
“I want to help my family. All this responsibility. And I felt the pressure in that time.”
“Nowadays, I don’t feel any pressure about that.”
“It’s more like an ego thing. I want to be manager of Manchester United for a while.”
“I don’t want to fail. That is the only pressure.”
Amorim then starts talking about the struggles of last season.
“I had that feeling during the season that I’m so frustrated, I cannot do anything, so I have to wait. And to wait, and being manager of Manchester United, is like going to a fight with my hands like this.” Amorim drops his arms by his side, almost placing them behind the chair he is sitting on.
“In some moments, I just needed to survive to the end, because everything I need to do, I will need to do with a new start, with more time, with some changes that I cannot do now. That is even people around the staff and players.
“My goal in that moment, three months to the end, was trying to win the Europa League.”
“We struggled a lot, trying to save players, to play 60 minutes.”
“You play against Newcastle, all these clubs, and you have to perform, or we will have problems.”
“But you need to take one guy off at 60 minutes — and you cannot do it in Manchester United, you cannot think like that, I cannot change three guys because I have to try to maintain the team fit to win the Europa League.”
“To tell you the truth, it’s not how I returned to my house after the games — (it was) how I left to go to the games. Because I knew that we will struggle in specific games. That is the hardest part, to go to the games and know that we are not going to be competitive, how we should be.
“When I returned (home), I just looked to my family and tried to think in different things. But I was really frustrated.”
“If I have the feeling that before the game, that we are going to be competitive, we’ll be OK,” he says. “I just don’t want to return to that feeling that we are thinking it’s not a 50-50 game.”
Amorim then gets asked about the importance of emotions.
“We need to be a little bit more emotional in this team,” he says. “With the emotion, we become more sacrifice, more pace, more energy. We are improving on that.
“Competition is going to help. If you see Matheus Cunha is playing, Mason Mount is on the bench.”
“Bruno and Kobbie Mainoo are in the same position.”
“Bruno can do different positions and even Kobbie. These things will help.”
“It’s a perfect year to do that without European competition.”
“We need to put the standards, then we’ll be ready in the next season (2026-27), to cope with less trainings, all the culture is already here, so we can play, play, play.”
He then starts talking about his current thoughts on the squad.
“I want a small squad so everyone feels really important.”
Amorim says. “If you have a lot of players, you have one week to prepare, and a lot of players are going to be out and then in training, they will be frustrated, then the quality will drop.”
Amorim plans to use academy players to fill in the gaps in positions. “I think we need to improve the academy,” he adds. “We have young kids that are not going to be 100 per cent of the time with us.”
“For someone to come into our team, we need to do all that work that we did with Bryan and Cunha,” he says.
“We need to be really careful to assess the character the way they play, try to imagine if they play abroad, try to imagine them physically, technically playing in our club.”
He was then asked about exiles and in particular the “Bomb Squad”.
“The market is open. There are players who clearly show they don’t want to be here, and that is normal.”
“They are not bad, and I’m good. I’m not bad, and they are good.”
“It’s a simple situation that they want new challenges.”
“We will try to use this space to prepare the team that I think will be here.”
“If the market closes and they are Manchester United players, we as a club have to treat them in the same conditions.”
He was then asked on Alejandro Garnacho whom he fell out with earlier this season.
“You can see he’s a really talented boy.”
“Sometimes things don’t work out. You cannot explain specifically what it is but it’s clear that Garnacho wants a different thing with a different leadership.”
“I can understand that. It’s not a problem.”
“Sometimes you adapt to one guy, you have the connection. Other times, you want a new challenge.”
He then talks about the Red Devil’s financial position.
“I have no doubts, because there are some things that you cannot buy — this club has,” he insists. “The pedigree, the history, the fans.”
“We have money without the Champions League. You talk with Omar and all these guys, they are making all the strategy to have more money in the future. That will not be a problem.”
“Then if we have a different culture, with all the pedigree, the money, we can return to our place. That is clear.”
Amorim then starts speaking about whether he can evolve in a tactical sense.
“I changed so many things during my short career as a manager,” he says.
“When I see a different thing that works, I will use it.”
“I copy so many things about other managers, the way they play, warm-ups. I stole warm-ups. I’m not so stubborn.”
“To be a really strong team, we need to have a base.”
“When the base is OK, we will start doing different things. It’s a process.”
“I said that in the interview (with United), I’m not the coach who is going to try to survive, to put an idea that is not mine.”
“Since day one, it’s the only way I know. Let’s build the base.”
“Are we going to suffer? Yes.”
He then speaks more about dynamism in positions.
“Of course, there are players who are not going to have a bigger pace.”
“But if you look at the same players in these games, the pace is different. That is my feeling.”
“Why?” “I think it’s the time to train. Even the certainty of the movements can help a player to be faster if you are thinking, ‘I jump, I don’t jump’.”
“We train when they need to jump; they already know.”
“So, ‘I start sooner’. Sometimes it’s one metre, one second.”
“That is something that the tactical aspect and the physical aspect are together.”
“Mainoo, with those feet, playing the ball, if he finds the right pace, playing like every time I give the ball, I find a new solution.”
“Every time the guy is running back, I can follow the guy because he can. He’s going to be faster.”
He was then asked about whether he was worried with Premier League rivals improving in the market.
“If we were in a different moment, I would be more concerned about that,” he concedes.
“We have such big issues here, I’m so excited to change all these things, I’m not thinking in that way.”
“I’m really happy with the players that we bring.”
“They proved in the Premier League, so I’m not concerned about the physical aspect. I’m really happy with the character.”
“I think personally, Jason and Omar also, that all the players that we want to bring to Manchester, any coach will want them. ‘This is not my style’… I can guarantee you, if you bring any manager here, they will say, ‘Bryan, thank you. Matheus Cunha, thank you’.”
