Incoming Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has hinted when he will move to sign “very good” players from Sporting Lisbon.
Amorim has been appointed to replace Erik ten Hag, who was sacked at the end of last month.
The 39-year-old has a big job at Man Utd as the Premier League giants have made a terrible start to the 2024/25 campaign. They have only won three of their opening ten matches.
Man Utd’s new head coach officially takes over at the start of next week and his final match in charge of Sporting Lisbon is against Braga in the Primeira Liga on Sunday evening.
Amorim’s move to Man Utd has fuelled speculation linking the Red Devils with several Sporting Lisbon stars, but the first signing he has reportedly chosen does not play for the Primeira Liga leaders.
Prolific goalscorer Viktor Gyokeres – who is the 2024 top scorer in Europe – has been heavily linked with Man Utd in recent weeks, but Amorim has given an emphatic on signing Sporting Lisbon players in January.
READ: Five Premier League flops Ruben Amorim salvaged at Sporting includes Liverpool outcast
Amorim said: “I won’t be signing [Sporting players] in January, that’s what I said.”
Despite this, Amorim is more open to the prospect of signing Sporting Lisbon players in the summer.
“I don’t know about the summer. The main thing is to hold on until the summer [laughs]. After that, we’ll see, Sporting’s players are very good players. I don’t know. We’ll see.”
When asked to reflect on his time with Sporting, Amorim added: “Regarding how things went here, there were titles that we could have won, I’m thinking about the Super Cup, we didn’t win the Portuguese Cup, but it ended up going well and the impact we had, I would say we should have won more, but no one would have expected us to win so much.”
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Earlier this week, transfer expert Fabrizio Romano claimed Gyokeres is “expected to leave Sporting Lisbon in 2025″.
“The feeling at Sporting is that Viktor Gyokeres can complete the season at the club and then decide his future destination in summer 2025,” Romano said.
“For sure, we expect Viktor Gyokeres to leave Sporting in 2025, should be in the summer, so this is the idea.
“Amorim has been honest, he is not planning to go for Gyokeres in the January transfer window, also, because he doesn’t want to break the relationship with the club, the relationship with the Sporting fans.
“So going for Viktor Gyokeres in January would mean creating a problem, an issue to the relationship.”
Romano added: “Man Utd in January are not planning to break the relationship with Sporting, especially because this is something wanted by Ruben Amorim for Gyokeres.”
