Football Daily - Ruben Amorim sacked by Manchester United

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Alistair Bruce-Ball, Simon Stone and Statman Dave provide instant reaction to the news that Ruben Amorim has been sacked as Manchester United manager.They discuss how and why this decision has been made, what it means for INEOS' ownership of the club and where Manchester United may look for their next boss.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The Dakar Rally is the ultimate off-road challenge. Perfect for the ultimate defender. The high-performance Defender Octa, 626 horsepower twin turbo V8 engine and intelligent 6D dynamics air suspension. Learn more at landrover.ca. Hello, I'm Alastair Bruce Ball and welcome to this instant reaction episode of the Football Daily. We're reacting to the news that Ruben Amarim has been sacked as manager of Manchester United.

Just after 10 o'clock on Monday morning, this statement was published on the Manchester United website. Ruben Amarim has departed his role as head coach of Manchester United. Ruben was appointed in November 24 and led the team to a UEFA Europa League final in Bilbao in May. With Manchester United sitting sixth in the Premier League, the club's leadership has reluctantly made the decision that it is the right time to make a change. This will give the team the best opportunity of the highest possible Premier League finish. The club would like to thank Reuben for his contribution to the club and wishes him well for the future. Darren Fletcher will take charge of the team against Burnley on Wednesday. So yes, that is Manchester United's next game, Wednesday night against Burnley in the Premier League.

I'm joined now by BBC Sports Manchester United reporter Simon Stone and our resident Manchester United fan, Statman Dave, to talk this all through. Simon, you were at the Leeds game yesterday, so it comes off the back of that one-all-drawer, Ellen Road and a run of one-winning five games in terms of latest form for Manchester United. What more can you tell us at this point?

Well, basically, we've had a series of press conferences both before and after Christmas when Ruben Amarim has hinted that there are issues behind the scenes in terms of recruitment, in terms of the amount of money that's going to be available for transfers in terms of the players who might be going out in terms of targets. And he's made it pretty clear that there are issues

and there's friction. And my understanding is that he had a meeting with Jason Wilcox on Friday Wilcox was making the point that nobody could really understand why he reverted back to a

wingback formation against wolves. They drew against wolves so they had this meeting. Amarin was not very impressed said what he thought, came into the press conference, was annoyed in the press conference so that was the background going into the Leeds game

then he was asked to Clarit. what he meant after the Leeds game and basically he said I am the manager of Manchester United and basically I should be allowed to get on with my job without external

interference and then said the recruitment department and the director of football who is Jason Wilcox should do their jobs I will do mine and I will leave in 18 months and that is

where we are and that is the build up to it. Okay. So in this statement I've just read out from Manchester United, Simon, it talks about giving the team the best opportunity of the highest possible Premier League finish and mentions the fact that they're six in the Premier League. So that's pointing at results and how Manchester United have played. But from what you're saying, it seems to me that it's far more about this relationship with the ownership, with the director of football Jason Wilcox, that that's just become incompatible. Well, it's on tenor. It was untenable once he'd said what he'd said last night

and something had to change. He said, I'm the manager of the football club. He said manager, even though he was appointed in the official statement as head coach. He said, I'm the manager not the coach. And I'm manager for 18 months until the club decide otherwise. And they've decided otherwise. The weird thing is, and many people scratch their heads, United are sixth, but they're only behind Chelsea on goal difference.

So they're not far away from Champions League and Europe is the stated publicly and internally is the aim for this season. So they're not miles away from that. In fact, they're in line with that. But I think there's a feeling that if this situation doesn't change in the kind of immediate, then the results will carry on fading away

and they'll miss their targets. So that is where I think we are really. Okay, Dave, we'll get to the sort of numbers on it on Manchester United under Ruben Amarim in a bit. Just your reaction as a Manchester United fan first and foremost. So have you seen the team improve this season? What have you made of them on the pitch and what do you make of this decision? I think one of the things with Ruben Amherst, Manchester United is they've been streaky but streaky across not many games. And I think that's been that the problem is the consistency in performance week in week out.

Manchester United, for a really good run of form, you think the win at. went against Sundland at home, beat Liverpool, beat Brighton, 4-2 at Old Trafford. It's been a really, really tricky fixture for Manchester United. But then the draws against Forrest, Tottenham, and the defeat at home to Everton against 10 men for the majority of that game. The consistency in performance has not really been there.

But at the same time, Manchester United could have won a lot of those games. You think the game of Fulham earlier in the season with Bruno Fernandez's missed penalty, the performance against Wolves and Leeds, yes, they weren't great. But Manchester United could have won those games of football. You think the chances that Benjamin CESCO's missed or Matthias Cunya hit in the post. It's just been a bit of a strange time this season where there's moments where you think it's starting to click. The football looks really good.

And then there's other moments where you think, you know, the Newcastle game where he played a back four, I think he was fully right to go back to the back five because I thought the performance against Newcastle was one of the worst under Rubin Amarin. You look at the numbers in that game, Man United had 33% of the ball at home. They had 10 shots in the game. They were outshot by Newcastle. They created only one big chance. there's issues there with Man United playing a back four. But I think first and foremost, if you bring Ruben Amran into a football club,

you know that he wants to play wingbacks. Man United haven't bought wingbacks. That is the problem. Dogu at Leche was playing on the right-hand side of a 4-4-2, was not playing as a wing-back. That's the one player that United have signed in that position. Wingbacks are so important when you play a back five. They're the wit, they're creative force,

their attackers versus defenders, in my opinion. United haven't gone out there and recruited there. So you've got a manager that plays a very specific style and system you've not dealt with that. You look at Ten Haag. Ten Haug's Iax, false nine, and eight that moves into midfield, from midfield into an attacking position.

Once again, specific positions, United didn't recruit for. So I think with Ruben Amarin, you know, as much as the results have not been there and the data we'll go into a little bit later on is poor, it doesn't feel like he's been backed from a fan's perspective.

Simon, what does that say about Ineos and the club's ownership and the direction they've taken. So what Dave is talking about there in terms of employing a manager, they knew the way he wanted to play and then the tools they provided him with to try and play it.

I mean, there's various elements of that, aren't there? The people at United, they will say, and they have said, they spent 250 million pounds on new players in the summer. So the idea that they've not backed him is wrong,

that they had to target certain positions and it was a collective decision, including Ruben Amarim to focus on the attacking players so Matches Cunia and Brian and Bwemmo were the two targets but then there was a very crucial decision made to effectively bring him Benjamin Cessco as a replacement for Rasmus Hoyland who admittedly had not been particularly good for two seasons

although he did look quite sharp in pre-season, but it's pre-season. They took that decision, believing that that would allow them to score more goals, which they have done, but Seshko has not played well, and many people now look at recent games, including yesterday, and we'll say, well, instead of buying another striker, they'd have been better keeping Hoyland and using that money to bring in a number six, or a number eight or wing backs that would have made the squad fit in a way

fit the system better but you can't just spend money after money Manchester United is a club that is over a billion pounds in debt in various forms so you can't just carry on spending money you've got to obviously try and get the best out of the players you've got now if we go back to Ineos I mean, if you look at the whole thing, they brought in Dan Ashworth as a kind of overseer of strategy.

They kept faith with Eric Ten Haag after winning the FA Cup final. They then spent money to build his team, sacked him a dozen games into the following season, into last season. Then they didn't like the people that Ashworth put forward as a shortlist to replace Ten Haag. So then they got rid of Ashworth in the end.

Then they paid compensation to get rid of Ten Haag. They paid compensation to get Amarim out of sporting. They paid additional money to get Amarim immediately when he was pleading basically to be allowed to finish the season and come in in the summer just gone. And now we're in this situation. So I think you can look at Ineos and say this strategy has not worked. and they need to have a good, hard look at themselves

and decide what their kind of aim is and what their long-term strategy is and what I'm being told, that in a way is what they're going to do because my understanding is that they'll keep Darren Fletcher in charge for one or two games. They've got the FA Cup tie against Brighton on Sunday after the Burnley game,

and then after that they've got two really big Premier League games against Manchester City and Arsenal but the idea is to bring in a caretaker manager and then bring in a permanent manager at the end of the season which all sounds really good but it's not that long ago we had Ralph Raniak doing a very similar job

after only Gunnar Salshaw had been sacked he quickly came to the conclusion that the club wasn't fit for purpose and he also wanted the manager's job and that season basically ended in chaos which is what Eric Ten Hard came into. So Ineos have to prove

that they are not like the Glazer family who executed that past formation but they have to prove that they are capable of executing a long-term plan because the problem is as with any football manager at any club you are beholden to results and there is an argument

for saying that the manager who delivers Manchester United to 15th in the Premier League deserves to get sacked. The manager who loses against Grimsby deserves to get sacked without even taking it up into any consideration or anything else.

So I think Amarim can count himself in a way unfortunate but equally he's kind of fortunate that he's got this far. Okay, well we'll get to the Ruben Amarim stats in just a second but just to clarify that though Simon, what you said there, Darren Fletcher in charge for a couple of games

as interim, then a caretaker to the end of the season and then a permanent manager appointment. Now, my question there would be, could Darren Fletcher's interim become caretaker, become permanent? Are we talking three different people? Definitely, or we don't know at this point? That is what happened when Salshaw left because Michael Carrick took over for a few games and then Ralph Farniak took over. I can see the kind of logic. I think the only argument against Darren Fletcher taking over on a longer term basis is he's not really being a head coach. He's being part of a coaching team, that is the kind of negative towards Darren Fletcher.

But that is my understanding that there is going to be a caretaker take over till the end of the season. Okay. Dave, what do you think of that? Let me just read some names out as well, because obviously as soon as something like this happens, we immediately get a bookie shortlist. So odds at the time of recording here, and I think this is for permanent manager. So this, I think, would be for the appointment.

in the summer that Simon's talking about. Enzo Moreska 3 to 1. Oliver Glasner, the Crystal Palace manager, 5 to 1. Darren Fletcher's at 5 to 1. Gareth Southgate, alongside Javi, Kieran McKenna at 12 to 1. Michael Carrick, who Simon's mentioned at 16 to 1, and Una Emery, the Villa Boss at 20 to 1. Those are the names day.

But just on that idea of interim to caretaker to permanent, what do you think? It doesn't seem like there's a plan, I think, there. I think that's the issue here is this feels quite knee-jerk in a sense of there was a meeting as Simon spoke about and then they've made a decision like what's next would be a key thing

for Manchester United fans. You know, the big thing with United, they're an offensive football team, they need to score goals. That needs to be the forefront of what comes next as a manager. But if you're changing once again between two or three bosses within a season

and then the summer comes around, that manager has to evaluate it again, the players go into a new season, they have to start flying. there's a lot of convolution there in terms of what Man United want to be and where they want to get to. You look at some of the signings over the summer and you'd say that Brian and Bumo and Matthias Cunya are inside players

in a sense of their excel, probably playing narrow versus wide. You look at some of those managers you mentioned there, Ali, you know, the likes of Enzo Moreska, loves his wingers to hold the width. You look at, you know, someone like Darren Fletcher, similar his under 18s play with width. That's one style. Then you look at Una Emery, his forwards play nice and narrow, who'd be, you know, a great Man United boss

if he could do what he's done at Asson Villa, but he's a long shot out there. The issue is what is the strategy going forward, I think? How do Man United get back to playing with swagger, playing with youth, playing with aggression, counter attacking, being a good dominant football side? There's a lot of ideas there that needs to be mashed together, but having that amount of change within a season,

look, you've got a caretaker in charge now, why not let him go to the end of the season? Like, that should be the strategy going forward. Darren Fletcher is a talented young coach who's got great experience under a few managers now. I think I'd rather see that as a fan to the end of the season and then potentially give Darren Fletcher the job full-time or alternatively look at someone else. And just on Ruben Amoryam, Dave, you know, I'll ask it bluntly,

you know, because Simon was saying in some ways could consider himself unfortunate to get the heave-ho in other ways fortunate. I mean, what do the numbers justify him getting sacked? Are you sorry to see him go? Yeah, I think I'm sorry to see him go. I think there was improvement, and as much as the inconsistencies were there, I think that does come down to the players at times.

Inconsistency and performance week and week out and not sticking to an idea. That is going to be a struggle under any manager, if that's the case of what these players are in terms of consistency. But the good things that United have done this season, they've scored goals, and that's something that was a problem,

and as Simon mentioned, was addressed in the summer by signings, and you look at only Manchester City and Arsenal scored more goals in the Premier League than Manchester. United, that's a tick of improvement. Defensively as well, obviously, from a overall view and goals conceded, it doesn't look good for Manchester United.

But actually, if you look at the data underlying in terms of expected goals conceded, they're ranked eighth in the Premier League. Yes, there's room for improvement there, but that's not rubbish. And if we dive a little bit deeper into expected points, which is a good metric in terms of judging out actually how well are teams playing, Manchester United are third in the Premier League. And we mentioned before how there were games that they could have won this season comfortably by nicking the post the other way, by taking a chance that they've created.

There was a lot of positives there, but if you look at the overall stats for, you know, Amarin to give a bit of balance here, he's got the lowest win rate of any permanent Manchester United manager in the Premier League. In terms of the goals over the entirety of his spell at United, it was the second lowest goals per game as a man United manager in the Premier League. Defensively is the real problem, you know, that's something that was probably more apparent last season with the league finish, Manchester United. conceded the fourth most goals in the Premier League under Ruben Amrim.

And I think one of the big things was the shape and system. You know, he played the 343 or the 3421, whichever way you want to describe that system 45 times and played for it at the back twice. Maybe that was a bit of an issue there. There are other shapes with the back three or 352 potentially could change things up, a 3-4-1-2, should I say, just for a little bit of difference to playing two strikers in that system. That maybe is the problem that it was too comfortable for opposition managers to go, we know what Man United are going to do,

this sale we're going to adapt to that and play against it. So there's numbers that paint him well, there's numbers that painting poorly in this area, but I think there was improvement this season, and I do go back to the recruitment being quite poor in the summer. Yes, United spent a lot of money, but they didn't really address the squad. They've signed attackers, which the attackers improved,

but they needed wing backs massively, as I mentioned before. Midfielders, central midfielers, Alley. Humongous problem. Nothing happened in the summer. Okay. And Simon, just to finish, so 12 years since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club, won the title in 2013, since then, David Moyes, Louis Van Hal, Jose Marino, Oleguna Solcia, Ralph Rannick for a bit, Eric Tenhaar, and now Ruben Amarim.

Finding the man to bring the good times back to Manchester United, there's been a few trophies in there, there's been two second places in the Premier League, they've been nowhere near winning the title since then, is an incredibly difficult thing to do. It's been proved again. Yeah, I think Manchester United, they got into a cycle where Louis Van Gogal, Jose Marino, Oliguna Solshar, all had seasons where not that they competed for the title,

but they finished high up the league and you thought the next step, if they can take the next step, they will be back. We're not talking about winning three titles in a row, but they'll be back competing. And they didn't do it. They fell back. And this time they've not even done that. And I just feel, was it realistic to think that Ruben Amarin

was going to deliver a team that was going to challenge for the title? And in the end, I just don't think it was. And I think Dave is right. There's improvement. But it's improvement from 15th. And Manchester United should never, ever in this world, have been 15th. So if you think that two seasons ago under Eric Ten Haag, they finished 8th, but that was deemed as unacceptable.

and they're now sixth so that is borderline acceptable I think Manchester United need to be believing that they can qualify for the Champions League and I think that is the issue because I don't think

believe the people running Manchester United Football Club felt confident that that was something that they could compete for this season without making a change of head coach yeah that's really interesting you said

Simon, that takes us right back to the statement as well. That line in there, this will give the team the best opportunity of the highest possible Premier League finish. So re-between the lines, that means, you know, we need to be qualifying for the Champions League. Thank you very much for the insight, the thoughts, the opinions, chap. So Darren Fletcher in charge in the interim. Next game for Manchester United at Turf Moore, Wednesday night, away to Burnley. It kicks off at 8.15, 5-life sport, bouncing around the grounds with all the Premier League action. so even more worthy of a listen on Wednesday night, Burnley against Manchester United.

And then as Simon says, from interim to caretaker, we think is the plan for the rest of the season for Manchester United and then a permanent appointment in the summer. But basically, keep across BBC Sounds, keep across five live for all the latest news. Thank you very much for listening to this instant reaction podcast to that news that Ruben Amarim has been sacked as the Manchester United manager. And you'll be able to hear more on the next Football Daily as well, where Mark, Mark, Chapman and the team on the Monday nightclub will dig into everything even further. Five live sports. Our referee for this afternoon.

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