Manchester United have been left frustrated with Sky Sports News reporter Gary Cotterill’s treatment of incoming manager Ruben Amorim.
The Portuguese manager was officially announced as the new head coach of the club last week.
This has naturally led to the global sports media focusing their attention onto the Sporting Lisbon manager but he will not become United’s head coach until after his current side’s trip to Braga on Sunday night.
Amorim gave the perfect goodbye to his home fans with a 4-1 demoliton of Manchester City last night but his pre-match press conference also hit the headlines due to the strange line of questioning from an English reporter.
The Daily Mail reports that “Manchester United are said to be disappointed with the robust approach of Sky Sports News reporter Gary Cotterill towards their new head coach Ruben Amorim in Portugal on Monday.”
“Cotterill repeatedly asked Amorim to answer a question in English at the press conference for his final home game as Sporting Lisbon boss, a Champions League tie against Manchester City, but was told by the 39-year-old and his press officer that he would only speak in Portuguese.”
Amorim has been more than happy to answer previous questions in English but felt as it was his last European press conference for Sporting in Portugal, he should reply in the country’s native tongue.
The Sky Sports reporter could bizarrely not seem to process this and scolded Amorim that “it’s like a cold shoulder to all your English fans”, even though he has already spoken in English about his move and will evidently do so in a week’s time when he is officially unveiled as the new head coach at Old Trafford.
“While there is no suggestion that United will make an official complaint to Sky Sports – with whom the club is said to have a generally positive relationship – sources tell Confidential that there was some disappointment at Old Trafford over the ‘hostile’ approach taken by the primary Premier League rights holder towards Amorim.”
This is not the first run-in the reporter has had with United managers as he pestered Erik ten Hag for a comment after watching United play Crystal Palace in the final game of the 2021/2022 season and had to be moved out of the way by the Dutchman’s bodyguard.
It was truly a bizarre moment that screamed of Sky Sports trying to create a storm in a teacup as it is incredibly reasonable that Sporting would not want the focus of their last games with Amorim to be thrown off with constant questions about Manchester United.
Amorim will certainly hope that this is not a taste of the quality of questioning he will face from the British media on the whole when he gets to work next week in his new role.
Featured image Justin Setterfield via Getty Images
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
