Erik ten Hag I mean Ruben Amorim 😅, said that the club's big plan this window is to improve the players they already have.
These were some of his quotes whilst out in Kuala Lumpur as Man Utd begin their 2025 pre-season. The Red Devils will take on _ASEAN All-Stars tomorrow afternoon followed by Hong Kong on the 30th of May to get the tour underway.
The team departed for pre-season straight after the 2-0 victory on the final day of the season when they beat Aston Villa to sign off on one of a handful of positives for what has been an utter disaster of a 24/25.
During his pre-match presser which he did along with his adopted son Mason Mount, Amorim spoke about many things such as the academy, needing new signings, moving on from last season, the future of Bruno Fernandes and more.
But his most interesting comment to me was when discussing the team and needing to stick together. Here is the full quote:
"We always prepare two plans, one with Champions League, one without Champions League. Without Champions League, we don't need a big squad, we can control the squad in a better way.
"Then we have a plan that is to bring some new players, of course, but our big plan is to improve the team that we have, is to improve our academy, that is the future, is not going to change so much because we have the FFP rules, we are not allowed to do much this summer.
"It's important to stick together. We are going to struggle, it is not going to be everything right away but I see the team improving and that is the most important thing."
I jokingly called him 'Erik ten Hag' at the start because this sounds very much like the Dutchman who just recently signed on as new Bayer Leverkusen manager.
ten Hag used to say things like this all the time: 'we need to improve the team', 'we have a good squad', 'need to be careful of FFP', and so on.
Let's break this down then.
This is a group of players who have been at United for a loooooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg ass time. The now recently departed Victor Lindelof was at United for 8 bloody years! This isn't me saying that I don't like Lindelof but he clearly was never good enough yet he stayed for that long.
An example of how badly run we are.
Most of these players have also not been amazing since their arrival however many years ago they joined. Previous managers like Erik ten Hag, had to do the same as Amorim and look to improve a squad that appears almost impossible to improve because of one reason or another, probably because the owners didn't want to give them money to spend.
Yet, many had tried to improve them all the same. All failed.
Look at this season for example. Hell, I'll make it easier. Look at the last two games.
The most important we've had in a long time and one that had massive ramifications for us was that Europa League final. We didn't even show up.
A game that had nothing, literally nothing on it, we put in one of our best performances of the season and win 2-0 against Villa.
We've had our speculations as to why they show up at certain times and not at others but Bruno Fernandes post that win said this "That was easy today to do that because there was no pressure on ourselves. We were not playing for anything in this game in particular.".
I had more to say on that here.
More than that, Amorim said pretty much the same during this presser:
The last [Aston Villa] game the team was without pressure, they performed quite well, everybody wants the ball, the team has different moments and in different moments Bruno [Fernandes] takes responsibility."
So both the captain and manager admitting that when there's no pressure, this team plays like prime Barcelona. With pressure, they forget how to football. Playing these pressure games is kind of what being at this club is all about.
So they're saying this yet the manager believes that their big plan is to improve this lot?!
Yeah 😐.
I get that perhaps a massive squad isn't needed especially with fewer games but saying that we don't need a big squad is not necessarily what I want to hear.
We do kind of need a big-ish squad anyway because we have old players who can't keep up, we have inconsistent players who perform when they want and we have a load of injury prone players. How many got injured during that Valentine's weekend?
Who's going to cover for them in such situations?
Sure you can promote the academy players but how ready are they? We've seen how impatient the fan base can be with some young players with Patrick Dorgu being an example. More players like him (Liam Delap) could invoke such reactions again. This is also unfair on the young player/s because they're youngsters. We cannot expect them to perform at a consistently high level. That is the job of the seniors.
Speaking of the seniors, we don't have too many nor many who are good mentors and examples to follow for these youngsters. There is no guidance which is part of the reason I believe as to why Rasmus Hojlund has struggled.
Matheus Cunha is a good start to transfer business but we need four or five more like him on top of getting rid of so many others.
If there is a problem with the budget and bringing in players, sell Bruno. This is something that many have been open to since that mammoth Saudi offer from Al-Hilal came in. £100m could give the club the financial boost they need.
The captain is inconsistent himself and is quite the divisive player. For someone who is also not an amzing skipper, £100m is a damn good deal.
There are also question marks over where he fits in best in Ruben Amorim's system. Is he a no 8, no 10, no 6? Perhaps selling him and using that money wisely to improve the overall squad, increase the squad size and find more players who are suitable to your system is what's best.
This won't happen though because the manager appears desperate to keep his captain. Every time Amorim speaks about Bruno, he cannot shut up about his importance to the team and wanting to build the project around him:
“For sure Bruno takes responsibility. He's really important for us”.
“He’s really important also for what we want to build with this team”.
So we should forget about that, at least from the manager's perspective.
When Amorim came to the club in November 2024, he signed a 2-and-a-half year deal which means he should be staying at United until June 2027. That isn't actually a long time.
If he is having to rely on improving these players whether by his own accord or not, I doubt he'll last to the end of this coming season let alone the one after that.
We've seen so many of these players play for so many managers and do the same thing, which is nothing. They throw them under the bus whenever they don't get their way and we've seen that over the years they have complained about tactics and not having faith in what the manager is trying to do.
This was the same for Amorim back in February when it was said that "players are beginning to lose faith in Amorim's system as results and performances continue to suffer. Amorim may still have their support, but confidence in his methods are inevitably starting to ebb." This was from Chris Wheeler in mid-Feb.
Just after losing the Europa League final, this came out:
"A lot of players feel Ruben Amorim is too over-confident in his approach, and cannot understand why he puts so much faith in playing a system that isn't suited to them", Chris Wheeler via The United Stand.
So these are the same players that you want to improve yet don't want to play in your system because it isn't suited to them. Yeah, good luck with that.
They are untrustworthy.
In his post-match speech on Sunday, Amorim said that "the good days are coming."
Are they? Are they coming if you want to keep this squad and not necessarily look to bring in the players we need? We've been down this road too many times before and it's time for real change. That togetherness he wants in terms of sticking by each other through this difficult period won't come if the club does stupid things like this and not clear house.
'Open heart surgery' still rings true to this day, 3 years later. Ralf Rangnick's famous quote during his interim spell was apt for the 21/22 campaign but the fact that we're still in this position in 24/25 and potentially 25/26 is seriously concerning.
This CANNOT be his plan. It simply cannot.
Whether he is just saying this for the cameras and having to be professional or not, I don't know but these are the words said of many previous managers. Hell, Mourinho wanted to get rid of a couple of players when he joined in 16/17. They're still here.
And this FFP things is something else that's annoying. If we really wanted to get business done, we'd do whatever it takes. I don't mean anything illegal but try to find loopholes. Look at what Todd Boehly has done at Chelsea.
The best part is, they're not even his players!
Other than Patrick Dorgu and Ayden Heaven, all the others were brought in before Amorim became United manager. Most managers would want a clearout in terms of the squad so as to bring in the players he wants.
Amorim seems to be going a different route.
Of course you have to back the manager regardless of whether you agree with him or not. This doesn't mean that you cannot be critical of his methods and so on but we do have to give him a chance. If he wants to try and improve these players, then we have to let him try.
If he fails, then he fails and it will all be down to him.
But what do you think of Ruben Amorim saying that the big plan is to improve the current squad?
Makes you want to smash something, doesn't it?
These players potentially get away with it yet again.
Ruben Amorim says that Man Utd's big plan is to improve the players they have | Ruben Amorim: Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)