The Portuguese is the one Red Devils manager who has backed up their words with actions when it comes to raising standards at Old Trafford
Spare a thought, just for a moment, for the Manchester United accountants. Already stressed by the spectre of PSR and Sir Jim Ratcliffe breathing down their necks looking to cut costs at every corner, they must have gone blue in the face when they heard Ruben Amorim talk in his most disparaging terms yet about Marcus Rashford on Sunday night.
When Rashford announced in December that he was "ready for a new challenge", the money men must have thought the club was at last in for a tidy transfer windfall. But selling Rashford, who has been left out of the squad for 10 of United's last 11 matches and has not started a game since December 1, has proven a lot tougher in reality. With one week to go until the transfer window shuts, only Barcelona and Juventus remain interested in him.
And any hope of getting a sizeable transfer fee for the striker, either this month or in the summer, was kiboshed by Amorim's jaw-dropping declaration that he would rather field United's goalkeeping coach, Jorge Vital, than Rashford. Vital is 63 years old and retired from football 24 years ago. Just two years ago, Rashford was on his way to scoring 30 goals in a season and would go on to sign one of the most lucrative contracts in the club's history.
GettyReducing his value with every word
Amorim has fielded questions about Rashford in almost every press conference since first dropping him from the squad for the Manchester derby in mid-December and normally calmly bats them away without making too much fuss. At first he seemed to be toeing the same line as usual, when he said: "The reason is the training, the way I see what footballers should do in training, in life. It’s every day, every detail."
But then Amorim added an extra twist and for the second week in a row the Portuguese dictated the content of the British newspapers' back pages when he added: "I prefer it like that. I would rather put Vital on than a player that doesn’t give the maximum every day. So I will not change in that department."
With each word of that cutting statement, Amorim was shaving millions of pounds off Rashford's potential transfer fee. It was the type of statement you normally hear in the pub or from the mouths of attention-grabbing radio pundits, akin to saying "I'd rather have my grandmother up front than him". But these words were coming from the mouth of the Manchester United manager, who has worked with Rashford for more than two months.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportDismayed with off-pitch lifestyle
As Amorim trod over Rashford's once great reputation as one of the finest footballers in England, it was easy to forget that the striker had scored the first goal of the Portuguese's reign at United at Ipswich and had bagged a brace in his first league game at home against Everton.
Back then it looked as if Amorim might be the one to get Rashford's career back on track after a miserable last campaign, in which he scored just eight goals in all competitions and embarrassed himself by missing a training session after going on a drunken night out in Belfast. But rather than be encouraged by Rashford's goals, Amorim took a look at his off-pitch behaviour and was dismayed with what he discovered.
According to , the coach learned that Rashford had gone out in Manchester on the Friday before the Everton game and spoke to him about it. Amorim, logically, does not believe his players should be going out so close to a match and Rashford's lifestyle was clearly on his mind when he said after dropping him for the derby: "I pay attention to everything, the way you eat, the way you put your clothes to go to a game. Everything. Sometimes you see and you understand that for so long, for example with Rash, we try a thing. With Rash, it doesn't work. Let's continue to do the same thing or try something different? It's as simple as that."
GettyGarnacho listened, Rashford did not
Amorim also dropped Alejandro Garnacho for the derby but opened the door to both of them returning when he said "New week, new life, let's see." While the Argentine returned to the team for the next game, Rashford has remained in exile. The differing treatment since the derby suggests that Garnacho responded well to the public dressing down and showed an improved attitude, but Rashford did not. Amorim hinted that was the case when he said after the Fulham game: "If things don’t change, I will not change."
Amorim continues to start Garnacho even though United want to sell him to Chelsea but he has no interest in playing Rashford even though it would likely raise the chances of selling him for an acceptable transfer fee and could even lift the team's chances of winning matches.
Rashford was United's top scorer at the time he was first dropped – Amad Diallo has since overtaken him – and the team have not exactly excelled without him. They have scored seven goals in seven Premier League games without him and failed to find the net in three consecutive games against Bournemouth, Wolves and Newcastle. Their problems in front of goal were even on display during the win over Fulham, when they had just one shot on target all game, Lisandro Martinez's deflected goal.
It is tempting to wonder if ending the impasse with Rashford could help United's fortunes. But the fact that Amorim is unwilling to compromise with him shows that he is serious about cleaning up the team's rotten dressing room culture. The coach's two predecessors highlighted this. Ralf Rangnick famously remarked that United needed "surgery of the open heart" in 2022 while Erik ten Hag said he was urged to fix the club's "no-good culture" when was hired. Former midfielder Nemanja Matic, meanwhile, revealed that players were late "almost every day". He cited Paul Pogba and Jadon Sancho as the worst culprits and mentioned "a couple of others".
Getty Images SportAmorim serious about 'standards' pledge
Ten Hag took a firm line with Cristiano Ronaldo and Sancho during his tenure but he indulged Rashford. Take the fact that he dropped him for the game at Wolves two seasons ago for being late to the team meeting only to bring him on at half-time and hug him after the striker's late goal won the match. Or the fact that the Dutchman only dropped Rashford for one game following the Belfast fiasco and the striker started and scored – again against Wolves – less than a week later.
Amorim identified the team's bad culture in his first interview with Gary Neville upon taking charge, addressing Rashford and Casemiro flying to the US during the November international break despite making poor starts to the season. He did not criticise either player for their actions but warned that things would be different under his watch.
Amorim said: "The main question here is the club have to set the standard and manage that. Nobody in the club said they cannot fly. They have to live their lives because they are grown men and they have to decide these things. Us as a club have to change in these standards.
"In your [Neville's] time you had a great leadership at the club, very strong and the culture was already here when you start. So it was a long time with the same identity, the same way of seeing things and you felt that even if you do that, your team-mates will talk to you. Now it's a different point, you have to acknowledge that. This must be started in the club, with us. We are responsible in that area. We cannot in this time put that of Rash or Casa. We as a club have to set better standards and we will try to do that."