The Rise, fall and rise again of Ruben Amorim Part 1

If you're a Manchester United fan reading this post then let me begin by laying my cards out on the table for you. Unlike other writers I can at least claim to have watched every single game that Ruben Amorim was the coach at Sporting. I'm not saying that makes me an expert, it just hopefully means that for you when I offer an opinion I'm doing it from a position of experience, from study, a place of honesty and that I'm not just wildly guessing. I always try to write with integrity and it would be easy for me to fall into the trap of recency bias. Sporting have taken four and a half years to get to this stage. Rome as they say wasn't built in a day. In the same period Amorim has been in charge of Sporting I've watched at most four of five United games. I've no idea what United's problems are so I'm not here to try to fit United players into a system. Feel free to listen to the likes of Gary Neville when he stated on a recent podcast that Amorim wanted to join United next summer so he had a pre-season with the players. I'll be the voice that tells you that actually that's now true, he wanted to stay to finish the project with Sporting. The agreement with the President was that he'd finish next summer and move on but United said it was now or never and so now it was. 

Amorim's favourite word or iteration of during post game press conferences is - suffering. We suffered today. Even when we've been winning the team has had to suffer, us as fans we've suffered, the coaching staff have suffered… From what I hear and read United fans are used to that already so it won't be anything you aren't already familiar with. It does serve as a warning of what might be to come. So whilst from the outside looking in everything appears peachy, not everything is as it seems. Take the last two games under Amorim. We suffered in the first half against City and against Braga. Don't be fooled by the 4-1 and 4-2 results. Amorim sides don't always make it easy for themselves. 

Keeping my cards on the table there are times during his tensureship I'm amazed he was still the coach. Not because West Ham flew him on a private jet or because Liverpool held talks. Because of what was happening on the pitch. Yes he's won two titles but they were very, very different titles. The first was in covid. We all suffered during covid that's a given. The football that won that first title wasn't high octane pressing. It was proper roll your sleeves up stuff and Sporting won it because they had a never say die attitude. They kept plugging away and benefited from Porto and Benfica falling off the rails. Porto were by far the best side on the eye that season. The following season oddly was great to watch, great goals, flowing football but the tendency to shoot themselves in the foot time and time again was evident for all to see. I think a large section of fans were waiting for him to go that summer but he stayed. Season three was a constant rotation of players, no fixed side. You couldn't have named his starting XI before any kick off. Amorim was panning for gold. To be fair to Amorim over time he's lost the likes of Nunes to Wolverhampton, Porro to Spurs, Palhinha to Fulham, Nuno Mendes and Ugarte to PSG and Sarabia who went back to PSG following his loan spell. If some of those names don't mean much to you, think of the impact this summer of Olise going from Palace to Bayern and the fallout there. We're talking about that level of loss to the playing side just to constantly balance the books financially. That's the reality of Portuguese football in a nutshell; The talent flows into the country, makes a name for themselves and then is flipped for a profit. 

Be under no illusions I'm not about to try to sell you the second coming of the messiah.

To an outsider you could be forgiven for being mistaken that the Estádio José Alvalade is / or was, the church of Ruben Amorim. Where the congregation of 30,000 plus Sportinguistas gather every fortnight to worship their all conquering heroes guided by the hand of the 39 year old mister. Portuguese futebol however doesn't fit the narrative of English football. Sporting Clube de Portugal doesn't fit the mould of a football club because that's exactly what it isn't. The clue is in the name. It's a sporting club. They're not trying to be subtle. It's not there to confuse or for decoration. Neither does the organisation's name contain the word Lisboa, that identity belongs to their biggest rivals Sport Lisboa e Benfica. So if you're wondering why Sporting fans get pissed when people call their club name wrong, there's your answer in a nutshell. Take a second to imagine how stupid you'd think I was if I made reference to London Hotspur or worse commented on Arsenal Hotspur. That's how the green and white half of Lisboa views the English media, second word heads, first word rhymes with sick. Just Sporting is perfectly acceptable as is Sporting Clube or Sporting CP just never use the L word behind Sporting anglicised or regionalised. 

It's often been said that football is the new religion and its not hard to see why. The use of iconography in tifos, the smoke bellowing down from the stands (although to be fair non Catholics might not grasp that reference) and of course the congregation of fans all coming together to sing in unison as one single powerful voice on matchday. It's not a huge leap of faith (pardon the pun, forgive me for I have sinned) to link the reduction in worshippers going to church with the rise in football attendances. Club's anoint their messiah, think Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, José Mourinho at Chelsea and so forth or on the pitch with the Messi's and Ronaldo's of the World. Again you would be forgiven for assuming that Ruben Amorim carries the same sort of status at Sporting, after all he not only led the club to their first title win in 19 seasons in his first full season in charge but added a second last time around to make it two in four seasons and the expectation is had he not left to join Manchester United that he would have made it back to back league title wins. If that was your assumption then you'd be wrong. 

In England players and managers are revered (okay so not all and most with an invisible sell by date) and each club across the land has their own unique chants. Players and managers departing can sometimes leave fans feeling like they've lost a family member. I don't remember the exact Bill Shankly quote so I'll paraphrase but it's along the lines of - football isn't a matter of life or death, it's much more serious than that. In Portugal, in Lisbon and at Sporting in particular the fans aren't necessarily given to hero worshipping. Don't believe the marketing department at the club in relation to a certain CR7 and his links. Yes Viktor Gyökeres has his name chanted and Paulinho before he departed in the summer had his song which was more a mocking adoration if such a thing actually exists. I don't know the exact translation from Portuguese to English so forgive me but it was along the lines of when he shows his teeth they all fall down. The adage being the perception of him was of being a miserable bastard and when he smiles everyone would faint in surprise or words to that effect. There isn't a Portuguese equivalent of Ruben Amorim's Green and White army. We start with the Marcha do Sporting sung by the late Maria José Valério. It's like the bastard child of bubble gum pop sung over a casio keyboard from the early 80s. Non Sportinguista's are forgiven for thinking what the fuck. That moves to O mondo sabe que as the game is about to get underway and as the referee blows his whistle the music is cut and the fans continue acapella, scarves held aloft and wide. It can be as powerful and moving a sight as the Spion Kop singing you'll never walk alone. (Sorry United fans. I've never seen the same at the Theatre of Wet Dreams). What follows on during any given game when the claques are in attendance is a 90 minute rendition of love songs to their clube of which this football team makes up just a part of. This worship is repeated across all the sides who play under the Sporting banner be that fusball, basketball, handball, volleyball…the list is a long one.

That second part was basically a 600 word answer to a question I've not even asked as to how the loss of Ruben Amorim to Manchester United will affect Sportinguista's. The simple answer is that it won't, because they don't allow one person to hold that power and level of affection. No one is bigger than the club. The ethos is that it operates as a single living entity. Sure you'll get the odd dissenting voice. There were also a few tears shed post Manchester City, his last game at the Estádio José Alvalade but for the large majority they'll become like a British tea towel - Keep calm and carry on. Thank you for all you've done, we wish you well but you're now fish and chip wrapper - yesterday's news. 

Manchester United players will be in for a shock. If your face doesn't fit and Amorim sees you as not fitting into his system then off you go be that on loan or sold. There's no comeback trail, there's no time for egos. Behind the smile of the mister is a ruthless streak, a self belief in his methods and his staff to deliver results. Let me provide you with some context; For example every season since he came into Sporting he's tried to move Jovane Cabral on and finally this summer they found a buyer for him but it wasn't through lack of trying. Ruben Vinagre was a €10m purchase from Wolves and can barely have put his suitcase down before Amorim decided that no, he's not for me. Islam Slimani was brought back to the club in the 2021/22 season when the team desperately needed goals but fell out with Amorim in record time and was sent packing. Koindredi and Rafael joined in January and were out the door again by the summer albeit on loan but like in the case of Jovane that was probably because a sale couldn't be finalised. Fatawu has ripped it up at Leicester in the Championship and continues to grow in the Premier League but for whatever reason Amorim wasn't having him and the original loan deal included a built in option to purchase the player. No matter what the youngster did he wasn't part of Amorim's plans. 

The following is a list of players sold by the club because they weren't part of the plans of the mister. They don't include player sales such as Palinha, Nunes, Porro and Ugarte who you envisage were sales to balance the books. 

2024/25

Sold: Jovane, Camacho

Loans; Koindredi, Sotiris, Vinagre, Rafael

2023/24

Sold: Chermiti, Tomas, Arthur, Fatawu, Marsà, Bellerín, Rochinha, Doumbia, Paulo, Ilori.

Loans; Jovane, Sotiri, Vinagre, Tanlongo, Esteves, Nazinho

2022/23

Sold; Plata, Tabata, Rosier, Sporar, Mendes, Feddal, Battaglia, Slimani, Phellype, Marques, Ribeiro

Loans; Vinagre, Esteves, Camacho, Marsà, Doumbia, Phellype, Illori

2021/22

Sold; Maximiano, Misic, Antunes, Fernandez, Agbenyenu, Gaspar, Mattheus

Loans: Henrique, Rosier, Jovane, Ilori, Camacho, Phellype, Sporar, Plata, Battaglia, Doumbia, Marques, Mendes, Jatobá

No one is safe in theory in the current United squad. The one difference however is clearly the level of wages players are on. It's easier to find a market for a Portuguese player earning £150,000 per annum than it is a United player on £150,000 a week. United may have to suffer short term on deals to get the long term benefits. 

Class of 2025?

You've had the Busby Babes and the class of 92 at Manchester United. I don't think anyone's ever coined a name for Amorim's kids at Sporting. Given they're the Leões perhaps they'd be Amorim's fihote de leão (Amorim's Lion Cubs) or possibly something else given how useless Google translate is and always does me like a kipper. He's given debuts to over two dozen academy players in his time at Sporting. In my opinion that's the reason United have gone for him. Anyone thinking he's going fishing for members of Sporting's current squad in the summer is going the wrong way down the river in my humble opinion. Sure Viktor Gyökeres is well on his way to becoming a superstar but he wasn't when Sporting took him from Coventry City. Amorim buys a Ricardo Esgaio, he takes a Geovany Quenda from the youth team and says show me what you can do. Maybe he will think I can finally spend big money but I'd be amazed. He wants players that will buy into his ethos. He will care little about what the fans want. He is his own man and will die on his sword not someone else's. United have spent £1.8 BILLION since David Moyes was in charge on players and that figure doesn't include players wages. All the pundits in the English media are trying to fit current first team players into a 3-4-3. They should be looking at the academy team going who's in there who could suddenly be a surprise inclusion. Who's perceived to be good enough because there will be names that appear on the team sheet before the season is done that no one in the English media is talking about now. I'd have very good money on that. Don't be surprised if they're also 16 or 17 years of age. 

I'd be gobsmacked if Gyökeres doesn't already have a deal in principle with an unnamed club for next summer, that he knew Amorim's plan was to stay for one more season and the club have said if you stay for a further year, don't cause any issues we'll sell you for less than your termination clause. I'd have a cheeky punt he could end up with Real Madrid and not in England at all. Or if Haaland goes to Madrid that he goes to the blue side of Manchester. 

Geovany Quenda isn't going to be let go for less than his €100m clause and if clubs weren't willing to spend €100m on Gyökeres in the summer they're not paying it for an unproven 17 year old. 

As for links for Marcus Edwards and Manchester United, he doesn't get picked in the Sporting team so let's not kid ourselves, Amorim isn't going to get United to shell out on him.

Hjulmand - Sporting's replacement for Ugarte who is now playing for … oh Manchester United. 

Gonçalves - Sporting's replacement for Bruno Fernandes who is playing for … oh Manchester United again. 

It may well be that he does come back in for a player or two but if he does it may well be for someone who hasn't yet broken into the Sporting team and that neither set of fans will have heard of the player. He might go to the United hierarchy and say get me a Nuno Mendes. I'm no more speculating now than any other media commentators in England but they're all expecting him to fit into their narrative. I'm writing from experience and observation of his methods and firmly expecting him to do nothing of the sort. 

I thought his quote post Braga was quite telling; “I won’t become a different person. Whether I last three months or ten years, I know I’ll be fine. Because I’m fully aware of what’s important in life. And that’s a big advantage. I really want to win, I’ll be in a better mood if I win, more upset if I lose, but I certainly won’t lose my essence. I’d sooner give up my coaching career. Because there’s so much to do. I’ll be the same. Obviously it will be much more difficult, I have no illusions and I’m not naive at all. This adventure was much riskier. The other one is whatever it has to be.”

This is a man cut from a different cloth but he's under no illusions as to the task that awaits him. Amorim is different and he's going to blow the minds of some of the English media. He doesn't do big half time team talks. You'll find him out on the bench going through tactics with any halftime substitutes or sitting in silence just staring out to the pitch on the bench. If someone was to tell me he goes in at half time, has a wee, washes his hands and goes out again I'd believe it. He trusts his coaching staff implicitly. Any United fans getting their knickers in a twist over Ruud van Nistelroy not being kept on ask yourself how many days the Dutchman has worked with Amorim and how well he knows his methods. I'll give you a clue - the answer is none and he doesn't. So why would he keep him? He needs to train the players, not coaching staff he's never worked with before. He's not one for showing emotions. You'll find him crouching by the side of the pitch studiously taking everything in. There may be just the one player wearing the captains armband, however he employs a set of captains throughout the squad, his leadership team extending onto the pitch making sure the game plan is carried out. 

Amorim took over Sporting when the club was in the doldrums and he looks like history is repeating itself. He has benefited from a great structure at the club. Part of that structure has gone with him in respects of his coaching team. He's had Varandas and Viana who believe in him and have given him the support and time he's needed. He's also oddly benefited from the club having paid €10m for his services. For United that's loose change. For Sporting, that's an investment that had to work out. Had they not paid a fee, despite the title win in the first season he may not have made it through seasons two and three let alone got to season four. If Marco Silva had the same structure behind him as Amorim I'm convinced he brings success to the club a decade earlier. We'll never know. Management under Bruno de Carvalho was akin to what you'd expect at a circus. Varandas has his detractors from the claques especially but much of that stems from privileges having been revoked. Monies now go where they should always have gone to the club and not into the pockets of others. In short Amorim will need the same structure, support and time at United. Well Bonne chance with that Ruben. 

In my last post I started to mention Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman but decided that the Braga post wasn't the right home for it so I'll pick up where I left off …

The Godfathers of behavioural economics Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman when debating any given subject would each defend their opposing positions one day and then swap sides and defend the position they had vehemently opposed the previous day. How can you make an informed choice on a subject if you don't see both points of an argument?

So what I intend to do is make my argument for and against Amorim as a coach. You don't have to side with either, I'm not trying to sway you one way or the other to be fair. Make up your own mind once he's in the job. This post is merely meant to be an exercise in expectations management. Amorim is not how the English media are portraying him. You'll soon find out for yourself. 

The argument against

Regular readers will know I'm prone to the odd outburst. I think as football fans we're all guilty and probably more than most of being quick to judge. It might be surprising to learn that despite leading the side to two title wins I'm not his biggest fan. This time last season I'm pretty sure you'd find posts where I've volunteered to piggyback him out the club, labelled him as Emperor's New clothes and at one point wrote he should fuck off and become a Drake impersonator. I didn't rate Bruno Fernandes at Sporting either. I always felt he had half a good season and the other half he was disinterested whilst all the time being petulant. His rise in fortunes owed much to his link up play with Raphinha for which the Brazilian didn't get the credit. Given he , hadn't scored for United in something like 16 games and has now gone on a scoring run I'd suggest not much has changed. Anyways this isn't about the bearded buck tooth poster boy.

At Manchester United you'll have the equivalent of Classicos against Liverpool and I'm going to add the name of Arsenal for the past needle between the two clubs going back to the times of SAF and Wenger. You've the derby against City clearly. Let's throw in a resurgent Chelsea as well. That's eight big fixtures for starters as a test for Amorim. I'd throw in Villa but there's an unwritten law that United don't lose to them and Spurs but as Fergie would say lads it's Tottenham. Let's be uber generous and play up to the English narrative of the big six. That's twelve fixtures to test his mettle as a coach. Worryingly for United in recent seasons everyone has become a test but we know it wasn't always that way. In Portugal it's the big three of Sporting, Porto and Benfica which means in the league at least it's only really your record in the two Classicos and two derbies that counts. For those of you who are mathematical geniuses that's if course four games per season or a third of those against the perceived big six in England. Yes Amorim has a win percentage around 70% in the Liga but United aren't going to be facing sides who might be the same level as say a Birmingham City currently flying high in league one. Actually that's probably being overly generous. A side like AVS or Farense would maybe be on the level of a Walsall or Crewe. Any coach should come away with 20 wins a season if you manage one of the big 3. Sporting have won their opening 11 of the campaign and won all 17 home games last time out. Under Amorim we've scored just over 500 goals in all competitions. We had two 8-0 home wins last season just as an example. For all intents and purposes it's a farmers league. So alongside those four games the results in Europe tell the biggest story. 

Let's start with the recency bias and then dig deeper into the realities.

Currently we lie second in the Champions League table unbeaten on ten points. Pretty good huh?

Against Lille it was comfortable but we benefited from playing against ten men.

PSV should have put the game to bed and we were incredibly fortunate to claim a point late on. Sturm Graz was an expected comfortable win. Manchester City should have really been out of sight and got a punch to the back of the skull in the first three minutes of the second half. No one gets up from that sort of punch. 

In the Classicos against Porto; Super Taça we threw away a 3 goal lead to lose 4-3. That was the curtain raiser, in the curtain closer from last season we lost in the Taça de Portugal final AET 2-1 but because of injuries we're forced to play the youngster Diogo Pinto in goal and went down to ten men early in the game. In the Dragāo last season we were 2-0 down before a half fit Gyökeres came on and turned the game on its head with two goals in two minutes and the game somehow finished 2-2. We robbed them blind in the same manner they did in the Super Taça. Swings and roundabouts. 

Overall Amorim's record in the Classicos reads as; Played 16, won 3, drawn 5 and lost 8. 14 of those games saw Amorim face off against the charges of the wily old fox Sérgio Conceição who had his counterpart's number. His Porto side it's fair to say were the masters of the dark arts and Sporting rarely if ever got to grips with their opponents. If fans and coaches in Portugal are glad to see the back of Amorim then he was equally glad to see the back of his nemesis Conceiçāo in the summer of 2024. Sometimes the issues were formational, other times we weren't helped by match officiating but generally speaking Porto were just the better side. Whether that comes down to Amorim or the squads in any given season is debatable but if his record at United reads the same against Liverpool per se then his record elsewhere will have had to have been phenomenal for him to still be in position at United to have gotten to a point where he'd faced off against the scousers 14 times. Oh and speaking of Liverpool the noise from Portugal has always been Amorim didn't go because he wasn't prepared to move away from his 3-4-3 and the ownership wasn't prepared to countenance it. If that is true then that doesn't get you clicks. I'm not bothered about clicks. I write for me and I'm just grateful for people taking the time to read my thoughts and views. I'm sure it's nice to get this far and not had twenty pop up adverts. 

In last season's Europa league we played four games against Gasperini’s Atalanta. 360 minutes where I don't remember thinking we ever looked like winning. The first 45 in the opening fixture we weren't even at the races and the Italians had their foot on our throats. This was a side who of course won the Europa League for context  Two defeats in the competition both against Atalanta once in the group stage and the decisive one in the knockout rounds. Otherwise it was 4 wins, 4 draws against some meek opposition in Rakow, Young Boys and Sturm Graz. Not good enough when it counted the most. 

In the Taça da Liga semi final against Braga, Sporting's forward line developed a love affair with the woodwork in the first half and the game somehow ended in a 1-0 defeat.

The title win though. That was special. A perfect 17 home wins. To be fair having Viktor Gyökeres lead your front line is like the cheat code on FIFA. It wasn't always entertaining to watch mind. We suffered through the first 17 games, then hit a rich vein of form before injuries and general fatigue took their toll and we ground our way to the second title win under Amorim. I think Benfica falling off a cliff towards the end made it look like a more comfortable title win than it actually was. 

Speaking of our nearest rivals, last season saw Sporting win twice at home 2-1, once in the Liga and once in the Taça de Portugal. They lost away 2-1 with the winner coming with the penultimate kick of the game which was as big a kick in the teeth as they come. Overall his record in the derby was better than the Classicos; Played 11, Won 5, Drawn 2 and lost 4. That's still four losses too many for any Sportinguista.

The season before saw Sporting having qualified for the a Champions League and all set for the knockout rounds. A 3-0 away win to Eintracht Frankfurt in the opener was followed up with a comfortable 2-0 home win against Spurs. Then it all went Pete Tong. A 4-1 away thumping by Marseille not helped by the sending off of goalkeeper Adán after 23 minutes. The reverse fixture also going the way of the French side 2-1 after Ricardo Esgaio was sent off after 19 minutes. A 1-0 lead away to Spurs was let slip as the two sides eventually drew 1-1 and a 2-1 home loss to Frankfurt was the nail in the coffin and saw Sporting drop down to the Europa League. I think I can't be the only Sporting fan scratching their heads still to this day wondering how things went south so quickly and so badly. The Europa League was their reward for messing it up and that started with a 1-1 draw home to FC Midtjylland and a 4-0 away win. Arsenal up next, 2-2 at home and 1-1 after extra time and that wonder goal from the halfway line from Pedro Gonçalves. Sporting knocking the Premier league side out on penalties. Eventually they succumbed to Juventus having lost 1-0 in Turin and drawing 1-1 at the José Alvalade. I believe we were hard done by in these two games so I won't knock Amorim for crashing out of that tournament but the way they went out of the Champions League was unforgivable and shambolic. I'm sorry I know you can't be on the field kicking the ball but the buck stops with the coach. So in the Champions League played 6, won 2, drew 1 and lost 3. Europa League played 6, won 1, drew 4 and lost 1. Extra time of course not counting as a win which is why City were unbeaten in 27 in the Champions League before Sporting beat them 4-1 despite them losing on penalties. Don't blame me I don't write the laws. To me City lost and we beat Arsenal. 

Champions League again by virtue of the title winning campaign the season before. Sporting reached the knockout stages. Weren't so victorious against Manchester City that time around however. A creditable 0-0 draw in the return fixture away meant the sum total of fuck and all after City handed us our arses 5-0 at the Alvalade. This following Ajax handing us our arses home and away 5-1 and 4-2 respectively. Christmas came early that season for Sebastian Haller. There were impressive wins against Beşiktaş 4-0 at home and a really special night in Turkey against a hostile crowd who were silenced and stunned as Sporting made it 3-1 before half time and eventually 4-1 on the night. A 3-1 win against BVB was coupled with a 1-0 loss in Germany. So played 8, won 3, drawn 1 and lost 4, 3 of which were thrashings let's be fair. 

That leaves us with Amorim's first season in Europe with Sporting. Back to the Europa League for this one. Started with a 1-0 win at home to Aberdeen and ended with a 4-1 thumping by Lask. To be fair to Lask they were the best side I saw that season. It's still Lask though, it's no consolation.

Look no one at Sporting thinks we will start a European campaign and end up lifting the trophy of whatever competition we're in. We do expect to beat the likes of Lask in the Europa League though. Fun fact they did us 3-0 away the season before though we did win 2-1 at home. But by rights we should in my mind have been beating them all the same. To beat City in November was nothing short of a minor miracle. Play the same game in the same conditions ten times and that's the one time we win. Pep isn't shitting himself because of it. There's no point in lying. The win at Arsenal on penalties was a special night made all the more wonderful by the wonder goal but every time Sporting have played in Europe under Amorim you're left with the feeling that they're a minute or two away from doing something really stupid and all too often that feeling was compounded by them doing exactly that. 

In short Amorim's record, in the games where it counts the most, against the highest level of opposition Sporting will face in a season does not stack up. I said it before and I'll say it again, I'm genuinely surprised he was still the manager at this point with Sporting for United to take him off our hands. 

He's lost consistently in the Classicos and his record in Europe is average at best apart from the occasional memorable night. I've said it time and time again that I can't get past the feeling that he is Emperor's New Clothes. He's not the new José Moutinho bound for Chelsea, he's the André Villas-Boas bound for Chelsea, then Spurs, who ends up in Shanghai, racing cars and eventually turns up as the President of a Portuguese club having been found wanting as a coach. Maybe in 2037 Amorim turns up as Sporting president. There's precedent in Portugal now if nothing else. 

He's wedded to this 3-4-3 formation and he's not a tactical genius. For a large part of last season the game plan was simply that you had two wing backs, one attacking and one defending. So the front three would effectively become a front four in attack and the same in defence. Which wing did which would largely be determined by who was fit on either flank. In the first game against Atalanta which they eventually lost 2-1 it was one of the most one sided games I can remember in the decade I've watched Sporting. I've not just seen every Amorim game, I've missed one half of league football since Marco Silva was in charge because someone gave me the wrong kick off time. I've seen it all through the good and the frankly downright fucking appalling. But that half was right up there. Anyone trying to argue Amorim's changes at half time made the difference are lying to themselves and everyone else. Atalanta took their foot off the gas and coasted in first gear even when Sporting got a goal back. We suffered. I'll keep coming back to that word again and again because you will hear it at United. Pep has his so, so, so something's. Ruben has his suffering. Maybe he considers himself an artist. You suffer for your art do you not?

Maybe here's the ideal place to draw a line and let you all take a breather. Part 2 I'll argue why Amorim is a good coach and try make it that much shorter. If you got to the bottom thank you. If you didn't then you won't be reading this. Up your bum!

Part II can now be found here;

https://outsideofthepride.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-rise-fall-and-rise-again-of-ruben_15.html

A deeper look at the transfers under Hugo Viana can also be found here;

https://outsideofthepride.blogspot.com/2024/11/top-ten-signings-under-hugo-viana-at.html