The Man Utd board are playing the ‘blame game’ after their expensive decision to keep Erik ten Hag on this season, according to reports.
The former Sporting Lisbon manager took his first training session on Monday with many of his first-team players still away on international duty.
Amorim officially took over on November 11, replacing former Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag, who led the Red Devils to a disastrous start to the new Premier League season.
And now the Portuguese head coach has a big job on his hands to turn fortunes around at Old Trafford with Man Utd currently 13th in the Premier League.
The Red Devils have won just four Premier League matches all season with only Southampton, Everton and Crystal Palace scoring fewer goals than Man Utd so far this season.
It is unclear whether Amorim will get any help in the January transfer window as he looks to get his squad up to speed with his tactics and philosophy.
The Man Utd hierarchy already supported Ten Hag with the signing of five new players over the summer in the form of Joshua Zirkzee, Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs de Ligt, Leny Yoro and Noussair Mazraoui.
And now The Sun claim that the Man Utd board ‘are locked in a blame game over who was responsible for their summer shambles’.
The Red Devils ‘have become a laughing stock over their treatment of’ former manager Ten Hag while the club’s summer recruitment strategy has also faced ‘scrutiny following another summer splurge of nearly £180million’.
After speaking to candidates to replace Ten Hag in the summer, INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe decided it was a good idea to keep him on and hand him a one-year contract extension.
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On the cost of sacking Ten Hag and hiring Amorim at Man Utd, The Sun add:
‘The former Ajax chief’s staff were also dismissed — all with sizeable pay-offs.
‘It cost around £15m to sack Ten Hag alone, while they had to shell out another £10m to bring Portuguese Ruben Amorim in from Sporting Lisbon, including an extra fee so that he could cut short his notice period.’
And now Ratclife, INEOS, the rest of the Man Utd board and senior management team of Sir Dave Brailsford, Omar Berrada, Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox are debating who should take the most blame,
The report continues:
‘Now, tough questions are being asked internally about who bears the most responsibility for what went wrong with their planned squad revamp.’
