Five Sporting players Ruben Amorim should bring with him to fix Manchester United
Manchester United have finalised a deal for Ruben Amorim to become their new head coach after Erik ten Hag was given his marching orders on Monday.
Heavily linked with both Liverpool and Chelsea in the summer before making the “mistake” of meeting with West Ham, Amorim will realise his Premier League destiny by taking the vacant post at Old Trafford having somehow been ‘convinced’ into believing Manchester City are a ‘fading force’.
Anyway, he’s got a job on his hands and could do worse than bringing a few of his Sporting players with him in a bid to fix a broken club. We’ve picked five.
Goncalo Inacio
Manchester United now have six senior centre-backs following the summer arrivals of Leny Yoro and Matthijs de Ligt and we’re not convinced that any of them are fit for purpose. It is unclear as yet what proportion of their failings were down to Ten Hag, and it would be particularly unfair to write Yoro off, but Inacio could make for a classy partner for the teenager at the heart of United’s defence.
Inacio’s been on Premier League radars for close to two years – Newcastle were first linked in May 2022 – because a) he’s a very fine footballer and b) left-footed centre-backs are a relatively rare breed.
The 23-year-old was supposedly Arne Slot’s ‘absolute priority’ for Liverpool in the summer having already been eyed as Virgil van Dijk’s replacement the summer before, but FSG balked at Sporting’s £51m asking price. Presumably not a problem for INEOS, who paid the same fee for a midfielder they chased all summer to sit on the bench.
Morten Hjulmand
“I think he has the necessary qualities to play for the six or seven best clubs in the English league. His character, his leadership, his personality, his communication are not very common in today’s football. It reminds me of the defensive midfielders of the past, who controlled the entire game, who led the teams. You don’t see that much nowadays. It’s something rare what Hjulmand has.”
Brian Riemer, the new Denmark head coach, is convinced by Hjulmand, and name-checked Manchester United as one of the clubs that would benefit most from the midfielder, who combines tough tackling with vision and quality on the ball, as well as a fierce shot – as England discovered at Euro 2024.
United were linked when Sir Jim Ratcliffe first took the helm but were put off by the £69m price tag, which did feel very steep then, but not so much now as the great and the good across Europe keep their beady eyes on the 25-year-old, who would presumably enjoy the company of compatriots Rasmus Hojlund and Christian Eriksen at Old Trafford as well as his current manager.
Pedro Goncalves
You can be forgiven for forgetting (or not knowing) about Pedro Goncalves’ impact on English football, given his senior experience for Wolves consisted of a 28-minute cameo in a 2-0 Carabao Cup victory over Sheffield Wednesday in September 2018. Nuno Espirito Santo dropped a clanger.
Famalicao bought him for £1m in the summer of 2019 before he was sold to Sporting for a cool £11.5m a year later and he’s now being linked with a £70m move back to England on the back of 81 goals and 56 assists in 187 appearances for the Portuguese giants. Oh, Nuno.
Described as ‘Bruno Fernandes, but more of a goal threat’ (which doesn’t take much *snort snort*), Goncalves was first linked with United back in March 2021 as an alternative to Jadon Sancho, and could well now be an excellent replacement for the man on loan at Chelsea.
Geovany Quenda
In a slightly strange aside to questions about his own links with Manchester United, Amorim was also asked on Monday about the Red Devils’ supposed interest in Quenda, who’s broken into the first team this season as a left-footed right-winger, which United could really do with.
“I didn’t know about United’s interest, if there is any. Quenda is still very young, has few games and it’s good that he keeps his feet on the ground. The price is not up to me, it’s up to the president. I won’t comment on my future.”
No dice in the reporter’s somewhat optimistic bid to land a juicy ‘Amorim wants Man Utd job and will ask Ratcliffe to sign Sporting teenager’ headline, but hey-ho.
Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain are all said to be keeping tabs on the 17-year-old, so he must be alright, as his supposed release clause of £83m also suggests.
Viktor Gyokeres
It will never not be funny that Everton missed out on Gyokeres because they refused to pay £20m straight up rather than £17m plus £3m in add-ons. Brighton will be kicking themselves too, having let a player who’s got 57 goals and 19 assists in 64 games for Sporting and is now set for an £85m transfer join Coventry for £1m just over three years ago.
There looks set to be quite the battle for Gyokeres as Manchester City see him as a replacement for Erling Haaland while Arsenal have him at the top of their Proper Goalscorer shortlist. But Amorim would give Manchester United a big advantage given the striker’s agent said that his client moved to Sporting “precisely because of Ruben” and there’s little doubt that admiration will have increased on the back of their time together, in what has been a hugely beneficial relationship for both of them.
Rasmus Hojlund is yet to deliver consistently and may never be the goalscorer United need; there’s even more doubt over Joshua Zirkzee. Gyokeres is as close to a sure thing as it gets in the striker market right now.
