Behind the scenes: Ruben Amorim’s arrival

Carrington was quiet and draped in cold autumn sunshine on Monday morning, as Manchester United awaited the first moments of a new era. Ruben Amorim’s era.

Our training ground is invariably a happy place after three Premier League points have been secured, as they were on Sunday via a 3-0 victory over Leicester City, in Ruud van Nistelrooy’s final match as interim head coach.

But this day had a different feel; one of hushed anticipation, of optimism and forward momentum.

That feeling was mimicked online too: remarkably, more than 4,000 people were recorded tracking the flight carrying Amorim from Beja, Portugal – some 80 miles from Lisbon – to Manchester’s Ringway airport.

The initial word was that Amorim would arrive in the afternoon, and was it any wonder? Only hours earlier, he was in the midst of a thrilling last match in charge of his former club, Sporting.

The Portuguese champions had made a superlative start to the season, winning 10 games on the bounce in the league and trouncing Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League during his penultimate Sporting fixture, less than a week before this landmark trip to Manchester. But the green and whites found themselves 2-0 down at Braga on Sunday night, seemingly odds-on to fall short in Ruben’s final game.

But no. Amorim’s Midas touch had not deserted him. One of his subs, Hidemasa Morita, scored with his very first touch, before a stunning Morten Hjulmand strike levelled the contest with less than 10 minutes remaining.

In the 89th minute Sporting finally took the lead, and a fourth goal followed deep into injury time to complete the win, as Ruben and his coaching staff embraced joyously on the touchline.

But the final whistle merely kickstarted another exciting phase in the manager’s career: the journey to Manchester, and the beginning of his next challenge: the task of leading the 20-times champions of England.

As we waited for him at Carrington, there was a beautifully observed minute’s silence at 11am within the Academy building (where we were stationed) in honour of Remembrance Day. Next came a pause for lunch. And then, at 2.13pm, Amorim pulled up in front of the men’s first-team building.

Stepping out of a Mercedes people carrier, he cracked a joke about the surprisingly perfect Manchester weather and unveiled a smile as wide as the Stretford End, before embracing chief executive Omar Berrada plus sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox.

There was also a “hello” and warm handshakes for all of the media staff present to capture images and video of the occasion – the kind of non-compulsory gesture that is never expected by those working in a media capacity, but always deeply appreciated.

Amorim will have felt the weight and history of the place instantly: you can’t fail to. Huge images of famous Academy graduates adorn the internal and external walls at Carrington; club institutions like Dave Bushell and Tony Whelan are always close at hand, elemental connections to the golden eras of Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Matt Busby.

Then it was straight into the building, for more of the many handshakes and meet-and-greets that will surely fill the coming weeks, as Amorim builds up to that all-important first fixture: a tricky away trip to face Ipswich Town who are, of course, managed by former United first-team coach Kieran McKenna.

The Tractor Boys earned their first Premier League win of the season on Sunday, beating Tottenham Hotspur by two goals to one just hours before Amorim’s Sporting began their epic comeback in Braga.

Amorim probably met McKenna on his previous trip to Carrington – during a well-documented internship at United that took place during the Jose Mourinho era.

Ruben could be forgiven for casting his mind back to that week in 2018 and marvelling at how far he has come in the years since: from intern to senior manager, to Portuguese champion, and now to arguably the biggest job in world football.

If he can cope with the demands of managing United like all of the other challenges he has overcome thus far in his bright career, maybe we’ll be able to look back on this cold, crisp and sunny day at Carrington and marvel ourselves.

That’s the hope. But there’s a lot of work to do first. Good luck, Ruben, and bring on Ipswich.

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