New Man Utd boss Ruben Amorim could use Antony to sign Flamengo youngster Lorran in the January transfer window, according to reports.

The Red Devils sacked Erik ten Hag at the end of last month after a terrible run of form spelled the end of the road for the former Ajax boss.

Man Utd moved quickly to hire Sporting Lisbon boss Amorim with the Red Devils announcing in a statement that the Portuguese coach would join on November 11.

Amorim took charge of his final Sporting match on Sunday with the Portuguese top-flight leaders beating Braga 4-2 to extend their lead at the top of the table to six points.

And with Amorim arriving in Manchester on Monday, the Portuguese coach can now get to work on deciding his formation and tactics, meet the players and start forward planning.

There have already been lots of rumours about who Amorim could ask Man Utd to sign in the next couple of transfer windows as he looks for support in the market.

Many Sporting players have been linked with following Amorim to Old Trafford but that is something the new Man Utd boss has ruled out until at least the summer.

And now TBR Football claims that Man Utd ‘could use Antony in January swap deal to sign’ for Flamengo attacking midfielder Lorran.

The future of Antony – who has only played 27 minutes of Premier League football this season – will be one of the biggest ‘predicaments’ Amorim faces in his early weeks at Old Trafford with the January transfer window now less than two months away.

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TBR Football claims that ‘Man United might explore using Antony – who signed for the Red Devils in 2022 for £85m – as part of a January bid for young Flamengo star Lorran’ as they have ‘long-standing interest’ in the 18-year-old Brazilian.

The report adds:

‘Lorran was strongly linked with a move to England before when United were showing interest, and Dan Ashworth and his team may now have a trick up their sleeves.

‘United have already told Antony he can leave the club in January amid his struggles.

‘And given that Flamengo are one of the sides to show an interest in the winger, he could be involved in talks to sign Lorran at some point.

‘However, United are not alone in their admiration for Lorran.

‘TBR also understands that Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United have been among the clubs checking on Lorran.

‘Of course, there is also interest from Europe with the likes of RB Leipzig, Marseille and Atalanta.

‘However, it is ultimately believed that Lorran has a preference to play in England in the future.’

They also reveal that Lorran has a €50m (£43m) in his contract at Flamengo and, in encouragement to Man Utd, the Brazilian club ‘would be willing to accept a lower price in January’.

With 11 games of the season played, Liverpool sit pretty at the top of the Premier League, five points ahead of Manchester City.

That means that we can officially declare that Arne Slot’s men are definitely massive bottlers if they don’t go on to win the title, because only five other teams have held at least a five-point lead at this stage of a Premier League season – and all five of them have gone on to win the title.

We can’t say the same thing about a four-point lead, incidentally, Liverpool having ruined that themselves already back in 2002/03, when they ended up finishing fifth – but here’s how the rest of the 5+ Club (as we’re all definitely calling it) have got on in years gone by.

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Manchester United 1993/94 (7 points ahead)

How it started:
Having started the previous season indifferently before bucking their ideas up and ultimately eased to the inaugural Premier League title, Manchester United were right at it from day one in 1993/94.

A draw against Newcastle and a 1-0 defeat away to Chelsea were the only blots in Alex Ferguson’s copybook after 11 games, allowing them to create an unassailable lead at the top of the table and hold onto it all the way through to the end of the season.

How it finished:
You know it’s a different era when it was Norwich they led after 11 games and finished up eight ahead of Blackburn.

Chelsea 2005/06 (6 points ahead)

How it started:
Jose Mourinho’s reputation has suffered over the past decade or so, but he really did make the Premier League look incredibly easy.

Only a 1-1 draw away to Everton kept Chelsea from making a perfect start to their title defence in the Portuguese’s second season at the club; even losing to Manchester United in game 12 only cut down the gap to then third-placed (and eventual runners-up) United to seven points.

Who was second after 11 games, then? Newly-promoted Wigan Athletic, of course. Didn’t go on to do a Leicester, though, did they. Bottlers.

How it finished:
Mourinho’s Fergie-botherers ended up eight points clear of United. And as for Wigan? Tenth. The same fate which surely now awaits Man City.

Manchester City 2011/12 (5 points ahead)

How it started:
Liverpool beware: the only side with specifically a five-point lead at this point are, unsurprisingly, the ones who came closest to letting it slip. Roberto Mancini’s side opened up a five-point lead over Manchester United early on with ten wins and a draw, including a 6-1 derby demolition at Old Trafford in late October.

City sat top of the table for much of the season, never losing back-to-back games – but United’s form was even better, allowing Sir Alex Ferguson’s side to nudge a point ahead with ten games to go.

But over the final few weeks of the season, United lost 1-0 to Wigan, let a 4-2 lead turn into a 4-4 draw at home to Everton, then lost to City again in the derby to send us into the final day with City back on top of the table on goal difference alone.

How it finished:
You know what happened next: Agueroooo and all that.

Manchester City 2017/18 (8 points ahead)

How it started:
Why does everyone keep drawing with Everton on this list? City did it in 2017/18 too – but that was the only time they dropped points not just in the first 11 games of the campaign, but the first 20. At this stage they were already eight points ahead of Manchester United and Tottenham; the title was already a formality.

How it finished:
City remained virtually flawless. Their first loss came away to Liverpool in January, and just one more defeat followed – at home to United – as City became the first (and still only) Premier League side ever to claim 100 points, a massive 19 points clear of their local rivals. A fact Jose Mourinho remains weirdly keen to brag about.

Liverpool 2019/20 (6 points ahead)

How it started:
A genuinely brilliant Liverpool had been frustrated in their title challenge by City being even better in 2018/19, with Pep Guardiola’s side pipping Jurgen Klopp’s by 98 points to 97.

That left neither side room for error going into the 2019/20 season with another two-way ding-dong expected. Liverpool lived up to their end of the bargain, with a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in game nine incredibly standing as the only time they dropped points until late February.

City meanwhile suffered early-season losses to Norwich and Wolves, then were beaten at Anfield in game 12 to hand the Reds an even bigger lead.

How it finished:
By the time City returned the favour with a 4-0 victory at the Etihad following the post-covid hiatus, it was completely immaterial; Liverpool had already been confirmed champions a week before with seven games still to go.

Former Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has admitted they made the “wrong decision” when they re-signed Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021.

After spells at Real Madrid and Juventus, Ronaldo returned to Man Utd during the 2021 summer transfer window for around £17m.

The 39-year-old’s debut season for the Red Devils was successful as he scored 24 goals in 38 appearances across all competitions.

However, the 2021/22 campaign was miserable for Man Utd as Solskjaer was sacked en route to them finishing sixth in the Premier League.

Ralf Rangnick had a spell as interim boss before Erik ten Hag was appointed as Solskjaer’s permanent replacement ahead of the 2022/23 season.

Ten Hag’s arrival negatively impacted Ronaldo, who slipped in the pecking order under the Dutchman.

The former Man Utd boss preferred to select younger players and his side generally performed better without Ronaldo.

The veteran forward did not take this demotion too well as he reportedly often butted heads with Ten Hag and had his contract mutually terminated at the end of 2022.

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It was reported that Ronaldo was also unhappy following Man Utd’s failure to qualify for the Champions League and he was linked with several European sides before he left the Premier League giants. Despite this, he joined Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr at the start of 2023.

Ronaldo has been in good form for third-placed Al Nassr this season, grabbing six goals and two assists in his nine Saudi Pro League appearances. Overall, he has 68 goals and 18 assists in his 79 appearances for the Middle East outfit.

Reflecting on his time at Man Utd, Solskjaer admitted Ronaldo was the “wrong choice” and former Man Utd coach Kieran McKenna – who currently manages Ipswich Town – had one fear about the transfer.

“How are we going to defend ourselves? That’s the first thing he [McKenna] says,” Solskjaer revealed.

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“It was probably a wrong choice for all of us. But we felt it was the right decision then and there.”

Solskjaer has also revealed why he is “proud” of the job he did at Man Utd.

“I am proud of what I did. I have to say, I think it was a lot of good, and we were on our way to something very good,” he added.

“We came third and second, got a number of semi-finals, and unfortunately, we lost that final [against Villarreal]. That’s how I think about it, if we had won it, it could have been a completely different outcome.”

In a new interview, Ronaldo has intimated that he intends to carry on playing for a “few years”.

“I can’t wait to see what my legs have to offer me in the next few years,” Ronaldo said.

“If the 1000th goal comes, that’s fine… but if it doesn’t happen, I’m already the top scorer in history.”

Man Utd have made a record-breaking offer for Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane as the Red Devils look to provide Ruben Amorim with increased firepower, according to reports.

The Red Devils sacked Erik ten Hag after a terrible start to the new Premier League season with the Dutchman leading them to just three wins in their opening nine matches.

Ruud van Nistelrooy put four more points on the board in the two Premier League matches since Ten Hag’s departure by beating Leicester City and drawing with Chelsea.

Man Utd moved quickly to bring in Ten Hag’s permanent successor in Amorim with the Portuguese coach arriving in Manchester yesterday after winning his final match as Sporting Lisbon manager 4-2 against Braga over the weekend.

And there are already plenty of rumours about which players could arrive in the next couple of transfer windows as the Red Devils look to give Amorim some support.

There are some doubts as to whether Amorim has the right players to suit his 3-4-3 formation, which he preferred to play at Sporting, while there are serious questions about the strikers at Man Utd.

The Red Devils spent a lot of money to bring Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee to Old Trafford but the Man Utd duo, although still early days, have so far failed to live up to their exciting reputations.

And now reports in Spain claim both Man Utd and Paris Saint-Germain have made an ‘offer’ worth €130m (£107m) – which would be a record-breaking deal for the Red Devils – to sign former Tottenham striker Kane.

Kane has been in sensational form since swapping Spurs for Bayern Munich in the summer of 2023 with the England captain bagging 61 goals in 61 matches for the Bavarians.

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But ‘his adventure at the Allianz Arena could be really short’ as Man Utd and PSG ‘already have around 130 million euros ready to ensure that the former Norwich City or Leicester City player ends up leaving Germany’ next summer.

While PSG are looking for a goalscorer to replace Kylian Mbappe, new Man Utd boss Amorim has ‘ordered the purchase of a footballer who can lead the project’.

Amorim wants to replace ‘two resounding failures’ in Zirkzee and Hojlund after Ten Hag was ‘convinced’ the pair were ‘very interesting footballers’.

Former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Petit has pinpointed three key failures of Ten Hag’s tenure at Old Trafford.

Petit told Instant Casino: “The results of Manchester United simply weren’t good enough under Erik Ten Hag. Players didn’t improve under him. That is a deadly combination if you’re a manager of a top club and you want to stay in the job.

“I also don’t think that Ten Hag’s communication was good enough. He was not good in the press conferences in terms of explaining what he wants to do on the pitch, and he was always trying to find excuses, while trying to put in the front of people’s minds what he won, what he did for Manchester United.

“Smile, joy, passion, communication. They weren’t there for Ten Hag.

“You have to also question his record in the transfer market. He was responsible for signing so many players that underperformed and failed. I think he signed far too many players that he knew from Holland too. So much money has been spent on the players that he’s been asking for.”

Man Utd winger Alejandro Garnacho has been told that “football is not the game for you” after his muted celebration against Leicester City over the weekend.

The Red Devils have been in terrible form this season with Ruben Amorim taking over at Old Trafford after Man Utd won their fourth Premier League match of the season on Sunday.

Man Utd are currently 13th in the Premier League table and not many players have been immune to criticism this season.

Garnacho scored the final goal of the game as Man Utd beat Leicester 3-0 to continue their encouraging post-Ten Hag form but the Argentina international refused to celebrate.

His team-mate Bruno Fernandes revealed that Garnacho was unhappy with some comments from supporters in recent weeks and the Man Utd captain gave insight into Garnacho’s mindset.

Speaking after the match, Fernandes said: “It was a good day at work, I have to say. We have a lot of players with big qualities, but people can get too excited after one game and too down after another.

“Garnacho scored a banger but didn’t celebrate like he should because he thinks he has lost faith from some fans. I told him people will always moan but lots of people like you and enjoy what you do.

“I told him to celebrate, it was something special. He is a special player, we have difference makers. They are the ones who win us games. We want them to score every game but that isn’t going to happen.”

Giving his reaction to Garnacho’s muted celebrations against Leicester, former Premier League striker Troy Deeney said on talkSPORT: “I said it last night on Match of the Day, and I’ll repeat it. It goes twofold.

“One, it says what players are like nowadays, where their skin is so thin that one gentleman can say what he wants to say and everyone sulks.

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“And secondly, if he’s getting affected by that, I would say to him, just as an older pro: ‘I don’t think this football game is for you, big man’.

“Because you play for the biggest club in world football. If you play poorly, you’re going to get people to get on your case. If you play really well, you’re still going to get people to get on your case. You play for Man United.

“It’s called jealousy and that’s part of the game. So, disappointed that he didn’t celebrate. It’s an unbelievable goal.

“But this will be the making or breaking of him, because if he can’t handle that from one gentleman with an iPhone in his face, then I don’t think this is the game for him, unfortunately.”

Former Crystal Palace chairman and fellow talkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan added: “What you saw on the weekend was the absolute embodiment of the culture of Man United, and the problem they’ve got in that dressing room where that kid doesn’t celebrate that goal.

“The reason why he doesn’t celebrate is because he’s had some hurty words said about him, or people have been critical of his performances. That is all you need to know.

“It’s a self-indulgent load of old fanny. You’ve scored a goal playing for one of the best teams in English football, in one of the biggest clubs in English football, and all you can do is walk around like [Marcus] Rashford, which is the world’s on my shoulders, poor old me. Change the narrative!”

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