A body language expert has revealed how Ruben Amorim really felt after his Sky Sports was gatecrashed by musician Ed Sheeran on Sunday.
Amorim took charge of Manchester United for the first time at Portman Road against Ipswich Town, who held them to a 1-1 draw after Omari Hutchinson’s deflected effort cancelled out an early strike from Marcus Rashford.
Boyhood Ipswich fan Sheeran, who sponsors the club’s shirts, was in attendance in a box to watch his team put on an impressive show to close out the weekend’s Premier League action.
But the 33-year-old courted controversy after the game when he interrupted Amorim speaking to Kelly Cates, Roy Keane, Izzy Christiansen and Jamie Redknapp pitchside.
Sheeran shared an embrace with Redknapp live on air, as Cates commented: “Ed Sheeran has come to join us, we’re just chatting to Ruben Amorim.”
The singer-songwriter replied, “I don’t think he (Ruben Amorim) wants to speak to me”. But while he was joking, Amorim certainly didn’t see him overly happy and body language expert Darren Stanton, on behalf of OLBG, has analysed his reaction to Sheeran’s brief intrusion.
He claims that Amorim is “far from happy with the circus” and merely wants to manage his team, something he stated in his interview where he revealed he’d asked for media commitments to be limited going forward.
“It is clear that this is a man who wants to get his hands dirty and get to grips with Manchester United,” Stanton explained.
“He’s not used to the media frenzy around a club of this scale and I think it’s clear that the media are going to find it hard to pin him down on things.
“He just wants to get cracking and get some good results. He’s not interested in being on first name terms with certain journalists.
“It is part of the job that’s expected of him and the scale of it may have come as a surprise so that’s where a bit of contempt has come in.
“Clearly Ruben was not very impressed by how Ed Sheeran gatecrashed his interview. He looked as if he was left twisting in the wind with the mic so it’s clear he is far from happy with the circus of it all.
“He doesn’t want to be distracted from the job he’s been brought here to do.”
Ruben Amorim is interviewed after his first game in charge of Manchester United. Image: Getty
Sheeran received plenty of flak online, so much so that he felt the need to address the situation on Monday – issuing a comment on his Instagram story and apologising to Amorim.
He wrote: “Apologies if I offended Amorim yesterday, didn’t actually realise he was being interviewed at the time, was popping to say hi and bye to Jamie. Obvz feel a bit of a b*****d but life goes on. Great game though, congrats on all involved x.”