Resuming as new head coach of Manchester United just less than a month ago, Ruben Amorim has admitted the club is “not in the best situation” currently.
Following the exit of sporting director Dan Ashworth just 159 days after he assumed the role, the Red Devils announced on Sunday that he would be leaving.
The 53-year-old, who came in from Newcastle, was expected to lead an overhaul of the United squad alongside new coach Amorim, who replaced the sacked Erik ten Hag in November.
However, Ashworth’s exit stirs fresh concerns about United’s direction under co-owner Jim Ratcliffe.
Following a home defeat to Nottingham Forest last week, Amorim’s side are in 13th place on the Premier League standings – and ahead of Thursday’s Europa League contest against Viktoria Plzen, Amorim explained the situation of things.
“The first thing I want to say is that since the first day I felt great support from the ownership,” he said.
“From Omar [Berrada, chief executive], from Dan also, from Jason [Wilcox, technical director].
“Dan was part of that, and I really felt support from Dan also. But this is football and sometimes these things happen. It happens with players, with coaches.
“I know that it’s not the best situation but the important thing is we continue in our way. The path is really clear for everybody and I think this can happen in football.”
Quizzed if he is concerned that there is more instability than when he first arrived a month ago, Amorim added: “I don’t think so. Like I said, I’ve felt since day one the support from everybody, so one person leaving don’t change nothing.
“Of course, it’s a bad situation, like I said, because we are talking about a human being, a professional, that supports us as a team.
“But I think the most important thing is that your vision is really clear and that vision don’t change if only one person leaves.”
United are looking to bounce back from consecutive losses against Arsenal and Nottingham Forest, and those defeats have spiked talk that Amorim might need to look into the January transfer market, however, he reiterated his focus remains on the current squad.
“I’m really focused on to see my players and to understand my players. I think that is one of the problems of the clubs. Every detail counts and we have to be very clear first in the profiles, arrange all the process and then go to that phase of buying and selling players.
“We have to improve as a team, we have to arrange a lot of things in our club before thinking just about buying or selling players.”
