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Hello! Ditching Erik ten Hag took forever. Manchester United’s search for a replacement might not.
On the way:
United’s New Amor? ❤️
(Photo: Emilio Andreoli/Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)
INEOS has taken a bit of a kicking over its misguided persistence with Erik ten Hag, so credit where it’s due, Manchester United’s top brass had a plan for what to do next.
Within hours of The Athletic breaking the news of Ten Hag’s sacking yesterday, another exclusive dropped — this one revealing that United’s top target to replace the Dutchman was Sporting Lisbon’s Ruben Amorim. The deal could move quickly.
Here’s where the club stand on Amorim:
- The 39-year-old has an £8.3million ($10.8m) release clause. United are ready to meet it and that’s significant because paying off Ten Hag won’t be cheap. Cut-price alternatives are out there.
- Amorim is open to the approach, which clears one hurdle. Previous links to the jobs at Liverpool and West Ham United came to nothing.
- He has won two Portuguese titles with Sporting, including their first for 19 years in 2022. His team are nine from nine in the league this season and three points clear.
- His preferred 3-4-3 system is tactically sound and he has a track record of enhancing players, particularly youngsters. So few United stars seemed to improve under Ten Hag.
- Amorim’s director of football at Sporting, Hugo Viana, is set to join Manchester City as sporting director. There’s a funny coincidence.
As TAFC reported yesterday, Ten Hag’s assistant, Ruud van Nistelrooy, is in charge at United for the time being, but INEOS’ beeline for Amorim suggests the former striker isn’t a permanent answer.
The shadow of the Ferguson era 🌒
The naked eye and statistical analysis made it clear why Ten Hag had to go, but Mark Carey’s forensic look at the data behind his reign is properly damning.
One example: last season, United conceded more shots per 90 minutes than any Premier League side bar Sheffield United, who finished bottom with 16 points.
But the graph that struck me most was the overview (above) of how fortunes have dwindled at Old Trafford since Sir Alex Ferguson retired as manager at the end of the 2012-13 season. It’s a line in the sand: champions five times in seven years before he quit, also-rans ever since. Their fading dominance is extraordinary and an institutional failure.
As Oli Kay writes today, they’ve stagnated and been left behind. Amorim will need wads of patience. Ten Hag was infamously quoted as saying “an era can come to an end” when he spoke about challenging Manchester City and Liverpool. The Ferguson era definitely did.
A Real Farce 🙄
Ballon d’Or winners Aitana Bonmati and Rodri (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
There’s nothing wrong with the Ballon d’Or per se — the world’s best players deserve to be recognised — but the politics around the event border on the absurd.
Real Madrid were at their rational best last night, boycotting the 2024 ceremony. Contrary to widespread expectation (including at The Athletic) that Madrid’s Vinicius Junior would win, the men’s prize went to Manchester City’s Rodri. Toys flew out of the pram at the Bernabeu.
Nike had arranged special boots for Vinicius Jr and organised a celebratory event in Madrid in anticipation of his victory. A certain amount of disappointment was fair, but to regard Rodri — a Premier League and Euro 2024 winner — as a preposterous choice is a whole bunch of sour grapes.
A delegation of 50 from Madrid were due to attend the Ballon d’Or awards. They cancelled their trip when news of Rodri’s victory leaked early, meaning nobody from Madrid was present to collect the club-of-the-year prize, the goalscoring trophy Kylian Mbappe shared with Harry Kane, or the coach-of-the-year award given to Carlo Ancelotti.
I get that Madrid had a bad weekend, but maybe… grow up a little?
Other headlines from the Ballon d’Or:
News Round-Up 📰
⏪ This could be fun: Francesco Totti, 48, is considering coming out of retirement. The World Cup winner and Roma legend has attracted a couple of offers, seven years after he had packed it in. I bet he’s still got it.
✍ Chris Wood is flying at Nottingham Forest, with seven goals this season. The 32-year-old’s contract ends next summer, so the club have opened talks with him about a new deal. Good move.
👊 Speaking of Forest, they’ve been hit with a £125,000 fine for a punch-up with Chelsea, whose punishment is a mere £40,000. This follows hot on the heels of Forest being fined £750,000 for a salty social media post. They’re appealing their latest sanction.
🏥 RB Leipzig are trying to give Bayern Munich a run for their money in Germany’s Bundesliga, so Xavi Simons’ injury is a blow. Ankle surgery will keep him out until 2025.
😅 Having rinsed Ipswich Town’s Harry Clarke for the pandemonium of his first Premier League start, it’s only right that TAFC mentions his own goal has now been awarded to Brentford’s Yoane Wissa. Small mercies.
The Tragedy Of Pierre Bolangi
(Photos: Steve Bridge; design: Meech Robinson)
At the training ground belonging to English League One club Charlton Athletic, there’s a memorial garden dedicated to their former defender, Pierre Bolangi.
The chances are you’re hearing Bolangi’s name for the first time. He was 17 when he died in 2000. Charlton were a Premier League side back then and, naturally, as a member of their academy, Bolangi had stars in his eyes.
He and other youth-team players were taking part in a team-bonding session at an Army training school in Aldershot when Bolangi drowned attempting to cross a lake. Dean May, an ex-army staff sergeant who supervised the exercise, was later fined £1,500 after being found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence. The judge who heard the case said May had been made a “scapegoat” for health and safety failings on the part of the Army.
May went on to work for the Football Association, an appointment that frustrated staff at Charlton. He’s now a goalkeeping coach with a club in Australia.
Twenty-four years on, Bolangi’s friends have been reflecting on what might have been and the loveable cheekiness of a teenager who, on meeting immovable Charlton stalwart Chris Powell for the first time, greeted the left-back by saying: “Hey Powell… I’m coming for your shirt.”
Duff’s Disco Danger 🪩
I can’t think of Damien Duff without thinking of Chelsea. A direct and tricky Republic of Ireland winger, he became a permanent emblem of the Roman Abramovich era at Stamford Bridge; one of the first players Chelsea splurged on after Abramovich piled his fortune into the club.
That £17m transfer from Blackburn Rovers was way back in 2003. It was funny reading Duff once say that his fee was “a stupid price” — because in 2024, £17m is loose change. Today, he’s the manager of Shelbourne, an Irish team bidding to win their first domestic title since 2006 on Friday.
Reading about Duff, you can’t help but like his style. He plays good cop and bad cop, once using a doctored clip from the British sitcom Only Fools and Horses to lighten the mood after a player made a bad error. And you won’t beat this for a bang-on quote: “You think this is pressure? I’ll tell you about pressure — my little girl’s going to her first teenage disco tonight. That’s pressure.”
Preach.
Around The Athletic FC ⚽
(Sebastian Widmann/Getty Images)
Catch A Match 📺
(Selected games, ET/UK time)
Carabao Cup fourth round: Southampton vs Stoke City, 3.45pm/7.45pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/Sky Sports; Brentford vs Sheffield Wednesday, 4pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Fubo/Sky Sports.
DFB-Pokal second round: RB Leipzig vs St Pauli, 1pm/5pm — ESPN+/Premier Sports.
Serie A: AC Milan vs Napoli, 3.45pm/7.45pm — Paramount+, Fubo/OneFootball.
MLS Cup play-offs, round one: Columbus Crew vs New York Red Bulls, 6.45pm/10.45pm — MLS Season Pass, Fox Sports, Fubo/Apple TV; Real Salt Lake vs Minnesota United, 9pm/1am — MLS Season Pass, Fox Sports, Fubo/Apple TV.
(Top photo: Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images)
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