United, and Learning from Our Past

We’ll never truly know if Amorim is the right manager for us. All we can really do is learn from the great attributes of Manchester United managers of the past. When you look at our indifferent results. Are you seeing progress? Maybe, maybe not. It’s all subjective.

But at the same time what we all need to consider is how the club in the past got it right in its most successful eras with Sir Matt Bushby and Sir Alex Ferguson respectively. I have been thinking a lot about what Manchester United is and why some have success and some fail. I’ve come to the conclusion that these men were in a situation that allowed them to thrive.

But also, they did so on the basis of the club’s very own DNA and philosophy. They weren’t just great managers, they had the backing of Manchester United football club to the fullest degree.

Fast forward to today, many years later. You cannot argue that our ownership has spent money. It’s money that certainly wasn’t their own. But they did so in the wrong way while also not giving (some) managers a certain degree of time to make a go at it. Another consideration to be made also is just how football has changed in terms of player and generational attitudes. There are a lot of premadonnas that have really failed or just don’t get the Manchester United culture at all. In fact, no manager would have been able to manage them and effectively most would have been shown the door by past great managers.

So essentially, with Ruben Amorim he needs to be afforded time to build within his own system and get the players he needs. But also, there needs to be a show of improvement in terms of the footballing results. That much is clear so he is afforded time to mould his own philosophy.

He’s already doing more than most managers in terms of getting rid of bad attitudes or just players who just didn’t work out at the club. Now I am not comparing Amorim to our past great managers, but there is an overarching fact here that needs to be considered and that’s manager attributes. Where we now have a manager in Amorim that is now taking a hold of this football club and effectively trying to get it back in the right direction.

That’s obviously admirable, and it’s the best level of progress we’ve had in a period of 12 years where we’ve been constantly rebuilding.

Some might say we are still in that sort of transitional period right now. However, what cannot be denied is that past managers didn’t have the stability in order to work under and now Amorim is the chosen one essentially under INEOS to really steady the ship and chart a course for the club that hopefully moves it forward. For that we have to be patient and at the same time as fans realize that managing Manchester United is a different beast where many managers have tried and failed or just haven’t met the high esteemed standards that come with carrying that really heavy crest.