SIR JIM RATCLIFFE has assembled one hell of a brains trust at Manchester United.
And it seems, by closing in on Ruben Amorim, that they have started to get brainy.
They have started taking intelligent decisions.
They are making Manchester United sensible again.
The Red Devils have fallen so far behind Liverpool and Manchester City in recent years that they have been little more than a speck in the rear view mirror of either of their North-West rivals.
Yet the Kop giants and City have both been strongly linked with Sporting boss Amorim, the hottest young property in European coaching, and it is United who are on the brink of landing him.
At one point Amorim was favourite for the Liverpool job when Jurgen Klopp announced his decision to quit Anfield early this year.
He had been favourite to succeed Pep Guardiola at City since his Sporting colleague Hugo Viana agreed to take over as director of football at the Etihad. So this is a coup for the crew Ratcliffe has put together to run United’s footballing operation.
He poached Dan Ashworth from Newcastle as sporting director, Omar Berrada from Manchester City as chief executive and Jason Wilcox from Southampton as technical director.
These men sit alongside Ratcliffe’s chum, Sir Dave Brailsford, the former British cycling chief and marginal gains man, as the Old Trafford decision-makers.
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In the summer, when Ratcliffe made the expensive mistake of handing Ten Hag a new contract after the shock FA Cup final victory over Manchester City, his cabinet hadn’t been fully constructed.
But now that the delusional Erik ten Hag is gone — ranting on about media ‘fairytales’ over his imminent sacking and denying results he didn’t like — they are taking a shot at sanity.
Ten Hag will justify himself with boasts about two domestic knockout trophies.
Yet he assembled a former Dutch Eredivisie All Star XI to lead United to 14th place in the Premier League and 21st in the Europa League.
The £85.5million fee paid to his former club Ajax for winger Antony is a towering monument to an era of staggering incompetence.
Hiring Amorim promises to be an altogether smarter piece of recruitment.
In his first full season in the Sporting job, he won the club’s first title in 18 years and they currently sit top of the Portuguese table with a 100 per cent record.
And if you want any omens, United recruited well from Sporting in the past.
The best Cristiano Ronaldo, to a lesser extent Nani, and then Bruno Fernandes, who especially in his first year at Old Trafford was a very rare post-Sir Alex Ferguson transfer-market hit.
Amorim is only 39. He has only ever operated outside of his native Portugal for a few months on loan in Qatar as a player in the 2015-16 season.
He is heading into one of the most high-profile jobs in world football and there are no guarantees of success, especially given the mess of a squad he will inherit.
The fact that he strongly favours a 3-4-3 system with wing-backs means the Red Devils will have to recruit some more — there are few obvious elite wing-backs in their current squad.
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Man Utd ratings vs West Ham
THE LONDON STADIUM was the venue for the latest defeat in a shocker of a season.
To be fair, it was a hugely controversial VAR call in the dying moments that handed West Ham a 2-1 win.
And the first half from the Red Devils was impressive.
Here’s how SunSport’s Jack Rosser rated the players…
Andre Onana – 6
Very loose with the ball at his feet early on but soon settled.
Manchester United conceded from West Ham’s first shot on target, though given Ings’ deflected strike there was little Onana could have done about it.
Diogo Dalot – 5
Delivered one of the most entertaining missed chances you will see all season – doing so well to clip the ball past Lukasz Fabianski before smashing the ball high and wide of an open goal.
Despite that, had little trouble from those in claret and blue attacking down his side until Summerville was introduced. The former Leeds man tested Dalot a number of times with his pace.
Redeemed himself a touch with the header back in ahead of Casemiro’s equaliser.
Matthijs de Ligt – 6
Hard done by in conceding the penalty for what looked a soft challenge on Hammers striker Ings.
Restricted West Ham well for the most part but United never looked entirely comfortable at the back and a more potent attack could have caused much more trouble.
Lisandro Martinez – 6
Struggled at times to deal with the strength and direct nature of Michail Antonio, who tested all across United’s back line well until he was replaced by Ings.
Noussair Mazraoui – 5
Struggled to keep a handle on both Bowen and former Manchester United man Aaron Wan-Bissaka for the most part and was thrown around by Michail Antonio at times.
Having looked soft at the back he also offered very little going forwards down the left.
Casemiro – 6
Started strongly dominating in the middle but struggled to wrestle that back when West Ham picked up.
Was denied a first half goal by Fabianski’s superb save but got one eventually as he refused to give up and made sure the ball.
Christian Eriksen – 5
Some flashes of creativity in the first half but could not help United keep control in the second after West Ham perked up.
Marcus Rashford – 4
Entirely absent throughout the hour he was on the pitch. Played down the right he was easily managed by Emerson Palmieri who had little of note to do before the winger went off.
Bruno Fernandes – 7
Caused huge problems for West Ham and created plenty of chances which his teammates put to waste.
Fernandes made a fine run to meet a Casemiro cross but headed over the bar and had to watch both Garnacho and Dalot pass up huge chances after his good work to set them up – especially the latter, a wonderful looped ball to cut out the entire West Ham defence.
Alejandro Garnacho – 5
The young winger should have had two goals inside the opening eight minutes. One chance was rattled against the bar before a poor finish sent the second wide of the far post.
He continued to cause trouble down the left but faded as the game went on and crucially gave the ball away in the build-up to Summerville’s goal.
Rasmus Hojlund – 5
Drew a couple of saves from Hammers keeper Fabianski but neither looked too difficult.
The Dane was rather comfortably dealt with by West Ham’s central defenders and never looked too much of a threat.
Substitutes
Amad Diallo – 6
Added some life and threat to a forward line which had offered little after the break and lifted a clever ball over to Dalot in the build-up to Casemiro’s goal.
Joshua Zirkzee – 5
Claimed an assist but did not know a lot about it and struggled to have an impact from there on.
Victor Lindelof – n/a
Unused subs: Altay Bayindir, Manuel Ugarte, Jonny Evans, Ethan Wheatley, Harry Amass, Jack Fletcher.
But Ashworth, who has led the process of replacing ETH, has a very decent track record for appointing managers.
Gareth Southgate for England, Graham Potter for Brighton and Eddie Howe at Newcastle, where his first choice was Unai Emery — now, pound-for-pound, the best manager in the Premier League at Aston Villa.
That is what United paid £10m in compensation to Newcastle for. This is why they waited while he pruned his roses on gardening leave for four months. So he could get this decision right.
Most major managerial hunts start out like this:
Who is the best man for the job? Guardiola. Can we get him? No. Has Pep got any mates? Yes.
Some of Pep’s mates are doing pretty well — Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta, Enzo Maresca at Chelsea — and so Ratcliffe will surely have asked his chief executive, Pep’s former pal Berrada, whether the Spaniard has any other friends. Hence the one-time Barcelona playmaker and manager Xavi became a major contender.
But Xavi couldn’t hack the pressure of managing Barca.
And that sort of ‘kid on a Fifa computer game’ mindset isn’t Ashworth’s way.
Amorim will be a more popular appointment than any of the others who have been among the bookies’ favourites in recent weeks.
This lot were never going to go down the ‘give it Ruud van Nistelrooy until the end of the season’ route. They simply aren’t the sentimental types.
As for others with Old Trafford links, it is way too early for Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna or Middlesbrough’s Michael Carrick.
Thomas Frank seemed to be the bandwagon candidate and was sounded out by United this year but his style of football at Brentford is direct and could the Red Devils really have appointed the only manager whose team has lost to them in the last eight games?
Southgate says he is taking a year out, during which he will literally be knighted for the job he’s just done with England.
But he still wouldn’t have been fancied by supporters of any major club. Because, I don’t know, handbrakes or something.
Brailsford offered Potter the job at Ratcliffe’s other club, Nice in France, but he has been out of work since failing in his only elite managerial role at Chelsea.
Howe would have been intriguing given the fact he has become unsettled by behind-the-scenes changes at St James’ Park.
But Sir Jim’s Rat Pack have been impressively decisive in choosing Amorim. Now he must justify the trust of the United Brains Trust.
