Glory Glory Gone: Amorim's Sacking Merely A Blip In Man United’s Decade Of Decline | OPINION

Glory Glory Man United… As the Reds go marching on, on, on…

Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but there is absolutely nothing glorious about the state of Manchester United over the past decade.

As someone who

has followed this club obsessively for more than 20 years, the dominant emotion I feel today (or over the past decade, more accurately) isn’t anger or sadness anymore — it’s shame. Utter, soul-crushing shame.

What can only be described as a raging dumpster fire of a football club poured yet more fuel on itself by sacking its ninth manager in the last 13 years. Ninth. Let that sit for a moment.

And yet, the same tired slogan is rolled out again by all those blind to the reality: “We are Manchester United. We cannot stand for mediocrity.”

Here’s a message to everyone still clinging to that myth — former players, pundits, and fans alike: wake up, we literally are (and have been) nothing else but mediocre.

Stop shouting about history while the present burns. Right now, Manchester United are a punchline. Possibly the biggest joke in world football.

Living in the past, obsessing over “the United way,” and pretending nostalgia will save us has never helped this club — and it never will.

If you want progress, real progress, you have to get uncomfortable. You have to get dirty. You have to do the hard work for once.

Ruben Amorim: A Sacking That Surprised Nobody

It is no shock whatsoever that Ruben Amorim lost his job.

Let’s be brutally honest: the Portuguese coach — or “manager,” as he insisted — delivered the worst statistical spell in the club’s history.

• Lowest win percentage: 32%
• Worst goals conceded per game: 1.53
• Lowest clean-sheet ratio: 15%

Those are not opinions. Those are facts.

Amorim, INEOS, and the squad all come out of this mess looking dreadful. Nobody escapes blame. But if there is one thing United fans will never forget from this era, it’s three numbers that now induce cold sweats:

3-4-3

Mention it, and half the fanbase flinches.

The System Wasn’t the Crime — The Stubbornness Was

The idea that a 3-4-3 “cannot work in the Premier League” is nonsense.

Chelsea won the league with it in 2017. Crystal Palace have thrived under Oliver Glasner using it. Amorim himself earned the United job by mastering it at Sporting.

The issue was never the system.

The issue was that this United squad was utterly unsuited to it, and Amorim himself refused — stubbornly, bizarrely — to adapt.

As it has been mentioned to death at this point, the 3-4-3 system was never meant to suit the squad Amorim inherited. Yet he persisted.

Mainoo as a forward. Fernandes as a No.6. Mason Mount at wing-back.

All sacrificed at the altar of the system.

Should the players have adapted better? Absolutely. Should INEOS have seen this mismatch coming? Without question. Did Amorim’s refusal to change cross the line from conviction into self-destruction? Long ago.

The 3-4-3 has worked before. It will work again. Just don’t expect to see it at Old Trafford anytime soon.

Was Amorim the Only Problem? Not Even Close.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: this failure was baked in from the start.

United hired a coach with a very specific tactical identity — then handed him a squad built for someone else entirely.

Look at the chaos:

• In 2024, the summer signings included De Ligt, Zirkzee, Yoro, Mazraoui, and Ugarte — most of whom were chosen for Erik ten Hag’s system.
• Nine games into the season, Ten Hag was sacked.
• Amorim was parachuted into a new league, with the wrong squad, mid-season and (of course) ended up registering the worst PL finish ever in United’s history.

What could possibly go wrong?

In hindsight, it looks borderline negligent not to give Amorim a full pre-season and proper transfer window. Even Jim Ratcliffe later admitted the Ten Hag situation was mishandled, stating, “It was the wrong decision.”

Amorim himself reportedly wanted to wait until the end of the season before leaving Sporting. Had he been allowed a clean start, this transition might, just might, have had a chance.

Do Not Ignore the Boardroom Disaster

Amid all the noise around Amorim, do not lose sight of the real constant: the boardroom.

For a club that still dares to call itself part of the “Big Six,” United have been an embarrassment ever since lifting the Premier League trophy in 2013.

Both the Glazers and INEOS, spineless and detached, have consistently treated the club as a balance sheet, not a football institution.

Yes, football is a business. Nobody denies that.

But when cost-cutting targets staff livelihoods while those in power remain untouched, that’s when fans erupt.

• Free lunches scrapped to save £1m.
• 250 jobs axed last year.
• Another 150–200 potentially gone.
• Up to 450 people were fired under Ratcliffe’s watch.
• Meanwhile, United have lost £373m across five years.

Did these measures hurt the players? No. Did they hurt the executives? No. They hurt the people who bleed for the club every single day.

That is disgraceful. That is shameless. That is unforgivable.

A Graveyard of Managers, A Club Trapped in Its Own Shadow

Amorim now joins a long list of broken men:

• David Moyes
• Louis van Gaal
• José Mourinho
• Ole Gunnar Solskjær
• Ralf Rangnick
• Erik ten Hag
• Ruben Amorim

Different profiles. Different philosophies. Same ending.

Rangnick once spoke of the need for “open-heart surgery.” The surgery never happened. Only band-aids.

Ownership changed. Coaches changed. Money was spent.
And yet, the same problems returned.

Why? Because no one was truly backed fully by the club.

And at some point, we must ask the hardest question of all to all those lost in the glory days:

Is it even possible to recreate Sir Alex Ferguson’s era?

That glory will forever define English football, but it also suffocates the present. The weight of expectation crushes every manager before they’ve even begun.

So, as a final little goodbye to the ever-so-endearing men in power at Old Trafford, all I have to say is this: never again lecture us fans about “what’s best for the club” while repeating the same destructive cycle.

Be better and do better.

Yours truly,

One of the million voices still clinging to hope

Neither blind nor nostalgic, but a desperate hope that one day this club will finally stop living off yesterday and start building for tomorrow.