Ruben Amorim is no longer with us. He hasn’t actually died. But his tenure as Manchester United’s HEAD COACH is over.
I shan’t mourn his absence anytime soon. I imagine many others will not either after
enduring possibly the most unsuccessful 14 months in the club’s modern history.
We wanted this to succeed. We didn’t want to see another managerial change. We just wanted to see this team excite and dazzle us, we wanted to see this team win games, we wanted to get behind a manager who lived and breathed Manchester United and would be the person who rescued this club from mediocrity.
Instead, we endured football that anesthetized and frustrated us. And it was all defined by the manager’s petulance.
Amorim torpedoed his position. Of sound mind and agency, Amorim routinely spoke his mind which was first heralded as “saying it like it is” but quickly became an avenue to force his exit out of the club — and likely collect a contract termination fee. He never had any intention of leaving the club willingly, like he postured at the end of the 2024-25 season. After all, the honorable way out is not nearly as lucrative as calling out your bosses after a 1-1 draw at Leeds United.
Following the Carabao Cup crash out at Grimsby Town on August 28, I wrote this in the subsequent Vibes-O-Meter post:
I think it’s more practical than alarmist now to suggest that Amorim needs to figure this out, and he needs to do it quickly. Whatever goodwill he earned following the season finale win against Aston Villa, his subsequent post-match address to the fans, as well as the summer preseason tour, has surely evaporated…It’s time to show improvement. It’s time to justify why this club’s leadership should continue to back your style of play financially. It’s time to stop being a martyr in interviews. It’s time to win. Otherwise, it’ll be time to go.
A month and one day later, I wrote this in the Vibes-O-Meter piece that followed the loss at Brentford:
I have empathy for this being an extremely difficult job. And I have empathy for the fact that he was dealt a difficult hand, having to clean up the mess left by Erik ten Hag and his predecessors. Amorim also willingly accepted the job. He was not forced at gunpoint.
He regularly concedes that the results have not been good enough, and he knows his job is on the line if the team doesn’t get results. Yet, he doesn’t make changes to try and get a different result – how does that famous quote about insanity go again?
It’s nearly impossible to imagine this improving enough to overcome the stench of the first 33 games let alone push forward to a league title by 2028. The vibes are catastrophically bad, and it’s time for leadership to eat some humble pie.
It’s time to make the change.
Sure, that proved to be a little premature, considering United would then rip off an unfathomable unbeaten run that catapulted them into the top half of the table where they still inexplicably sit today, but the writing has always been on the wall.
Now, even though the squad is currently decimated by injury and international absences, they were gifted one of the most favorable run of games a manager could ask for during the festive period. A 1-3-1 record since December 15th which included draws to the 16th and 20th place team was all he could muster.
Hey, credit where credit is due. It takes an unbelievable amount of self-confidence (arrogance) to call out your leadership after a comeback draw at newly-promoted Leeds.
Amorim namechecked his fellow countryman, Jose Mourinho, during his final official words as United’s head coach, which felt fitting considering Mourinho’s time also ended in petulance and self-sabotage. It’s just too bad Amorim was also without personality, unlike Mourinho. That could’ve made some of this experience worth remembering at least.
Post-MD20 Vibes Reading
Now, the Manchester United 2025-26 Vibes-O-Meter is a very specific device developed with the most advanced science available to us: our gut.
The Vibes-O-Meter uses a scale of 1-10 based on the contemporary highs and lows of the Post-Fergie era. A sentence comparing a lowest moment and highest moment to denote the scale usually follows, but, frankly, I don’t know that I have comparable examples.
2/10
Positive Influences
- New beginnings!
- Darren Fletcher is here to temporarily save the day(!) or at least give us that hit of United nostalgia we’ve been itching for.
Negative Influences
- Another new beginning…
- We’re searching for an interim manager to bridge the gap between Fletcher as caretake and Amorim’s successor in the summer?
- Anyone else nervous about the new structure of the club?
- This squad still has major depth issues
