Former Manchester United player Danny Higginbotham says the club should be aiming for the top six next season and warned Ruben Amorim he will be judged by that.
United recorded their worst season in Premier League history with the team finishing 15th and missing out on Champions League football after a Europa League final defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
It left many wondering if Amorim, who took over from Erik ten Hag in November, was the right man for the job but Higginbotham said next season is when the former Sporting manager will be judged.
“As a fan, I held judgment on Amorim,” Higginbotham exclusively told Football365.com. “He’s brought in realistically, one signing that was playing week in and week out in [Patrick] Dorgu.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by what they’re looking to try and do in the transfer window. Obviously they’ve got [Matheus] Cunha, and there’s talk about [Bryan] Mbeumo coming in.
“They haven’t done that for a while, bringing in recognised Premier League players. That’s something they were so good at for years when they were the cream of the crop and they would get a lot of the best players within the Premier League, and get some great European talents as well. Obviously [Cristiano] Ronaldo coming at a young age.
“But I’m quietly optimistic. I think going into next season, this is when Amorim will be judged. I don’t think there’s any question about that.
“What he seems to be doing – he wants a specific type of dressing room and I think he’s made no apologies for that.
“Are we possibly looking at a potential of [Bruno] Fernandes, Cunha and Mbeumo as part of a front three or four to start the Premier League season? If that’s the case, then they’re in a far better place.”
As for where the club should be aiming, Higginbotham said a return to the top six should be the target.
“I think the expectation has to be top six, I think that’s fair to say,” he said. “We know that this season was considered a write-off and all the eggs were put in the basket of the Europa League, which didn’t come to fruition, didn’t work. I thought they were really poor in the final.
“But he has a full preseason now where he can work with the players, I think by and large, since he really took over, other than the Europa League, I think it was a situation where the players were on trial.
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“And I think now in the back of his mind, he knows who he wants, who he doesn’t want, who he needs to bring in. So for me, the results – I wasn’t too concerned about the results. It’s a fact-finding side of things.
“For him now he needs to know the players that he wants to keep, the players obviously he’s letting go but even more importantly, the players that he needs to bring in.
“So I think the business that is going to be done this summer is really, really important because they were so, so far off last season to the point where I’ve got a lot of friends that for a number of years when Manchester United started to decline, they would just be constantly taking the mickey out of me. Whereas this season, I got the one thing that I didn’t want as a Manchester United fan, I got empathy.
“And when you start getting empathy as a fan, that’s not a good sign. So I’m hoping that it’s a busy window.
“Obviously it doesn’t make things right overnight but then a full pre-season, the style that he’s implemented as he’s done that from the get-go. He’s never changed from that. So you hope there’s an understanding from pre-season, the new players that can get off to a good start and just be far, far better than what they were last season.”
Danny Higginbotham was speaking ahead of the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup 2025. Watch all 63 games live on DAZN for free.
