After a 12 year search, has it finally happened, have Manchester United found the real successor to Sir Alex Ferguson? If so he will come in the shape of a 39 year old man called Ruben Amorim who only this past summer was linked to West Ham. Many Premier League viewers will not know a lot about Amorim although that may have changed in midweek as his side Sporting thrashed Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League. What a way to win your final home game and what a way to send a clear message to all Manchester United fans, this could be the beginning of something special. Of course United have been here many times before from Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Erik ten Hag- all of them have delivered a trophy but by and large in the last 12 years the club has never looked like winning the Premier League and competing for the very top honours something that feels alien after their near 20 year dominance in the game.
One of the biggest problems for United has been an identity crisis, players have come in and showed very little for wearing the famous badge but that could be set to change under Amorim. Here we have a manager that is known as a great tactician even at his modest age but also and perhaps more importantly when it comes down to this club he won't just put up with players putting in a less than impressive shift. From Marcus Rashford to Antony some players have been accused of not being consistent enough and the word is that Amorim would rather see those types of players leave the club than stay, consistency of course is key. Amorim will walk into a talented squad and we should expect to see a shift in mentality in his first few weeks. He arrives with an average of a 70% win rate and he also arrives on November 11. However with the international break he won't manage his first game until November 24 when the club play Ipswich away from home. An away game as your first one is never easy especially in the Premier League however the club will be expected to beat Ipswich. Amorim's first home game will be on December 1 when the Red Devils play Everton at home, another game that fans would expect three points from. It will get interesting just three days later when United travel to Arsenal. So will Amorim's appointment finally move United up to the levels that they were so used to? Well very good managers seem to be a rarity nowadays but there is no doubt the huge job that waits for him. If he is able to give United back the hunger, the desire, the passion and the identity of the club, then he would have created some sort of footballing miracle and it will be utterly fascinating to see if he can pull it off and drag Manchester United into the light of the elite clubs once again.
Much has been made of Edu suddenly leaving Arsenal. The former player was singled out for changing the clubs fortunes by helping to identify and bring in key players, although after spending over half a billion pounds Arsenal are still waiting for their first league title in what will be 21 years by next summer. The suggestion is that Edu's proposed move to Nottingham Forest is a huge blow to Mikel Arteta and the club but is it really? Perhaps Edu's greatest hour was bringing in Martin Odegaard who has been sensational for the club, but it's when the word identify gets thrown around that this transfer makes no surprise sense. Odegaard was not playing for a small club, he wasn't talent scouted, now that would have been impressive. He was playing for Real Madrid. Could it not be suggested that any number of people in Edu's position, even fans could have singled out Odegaard in that respect? Then there is Declan Rice. But the whole league knew of Rice's qualities before his move, and this is a player who was playing in the same city as the Gunners. William Saliba has been an outstanding signing and he only cost the club £27m although that was a deal wrapped up before Edu had his feet tucked under the table at the Emirates. Gabriel Magalhaes does feel like Edu's really good pick given that he was plying his trade for Lille and seemingly going nowhere at the time. The media then have picked out the aforementioned players as eye opening deals, but it really doesn't seem that way at all. And let's not forget other signings under Edu's watchful eye, the £72m spent on Nicolas Pepe. Then there is Albert Sambi Lokonga, who had a short lived career at the club before being loaned out to Luton and then Sevilla in La Liga. Willian was probably his most damning signing. He came for free from Chelsea, but was on huge wages and was given a £10m signing on fee in the same week that Arsenal made 55 administration staff redundant. It would have taken five years for the staff to have cost Arsenal the same amount as Willian's signing on fee and after scoring 1 goal in 25 appearances the Brazilian left the club the following summer. It didn't help that Arteta supported the redundancies. Granted there would have been more to Edu's role and he was part of the fabric of the club and will be missed by them, they clearly relied on his 'vision'. But if we take a step back and analyse as we have it seems very possible that many other people in his position with a hint of European football knowledge may well have come close to achieving Edu's 'greatness'.
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