. Few managers go into a club during the season when everything is rosy but, even by the low standards of the trade, Rúben Amorim’s arrival at Sporting in March 2020 stood out.
The Lisbon giants were at a horribly low ebb. Fourth in the Primeira Liga, 20 points off the leaders, Porto, they were on to their fourth manager of the season and their previous title from 2001-02 was a speck in the rearview mirror.
Sporting remained haunted by the notorious training-ground attack of May 2018 when 50 hooligans – incensed by poor results – stormed the premises to beat up players and staff. The relationship between the board and the fans was awful. Oh, and something called Covid-19 was coming.
What Amorim did next, in the short, medium and longer term, returned Sporting to the top of the Portuguese game and established him as one of the brightest young managers in Europe. It has moved him to the point where he is poised to take over from Erik ten Hag at Manchester United – a club whose remorselessly chronicled woes have left them at rock bottom.
The 39-year-old coach is not about to say no, even if it will surely be a wrench to walk out on a team who have won all nine of their league fixtures this season, who believe they can claim a third title under him. Sporting are also going well in the Champions League, having collected seven points from an available nine.
Sporting’s appointment of Amorim was a gamble and the good thing for United is that the sample size with regard to his merits is rather larger now than it was then. At that point the former Portugal midfielder’s CV showed only two months of top-flight managerial experience, albeit they were spectacular ones with Braga. His league record read: P9 W8 D1. He won the Taça da Liga, the Portuguese league cup.
Before that, he had …
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