Amorim will have three years to make amends at Man United, says Ratcliffe

Manchester United’s downtrodden coach Ruben Amorim will be given the full three years of his contract to prove himself and the club will become the most profitable in the world, co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said on Wednesday.

Amorim was Ratcliffe’s choice to replace Erik ten Hag last November, but the Portuguese coach has struggled to turn around the club’s disappointing fortunes, winning just ten of his 34 Premier League matches.

United suffered their worst top-flight performance last season since relegation in 1973-74, where they finished 15th, and missed out on Europe after being beaten by Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final.

But Ratcliffe has issued his strongest message of support for Amorim yet, likening the situation to when Alex Ferguson struggled in the early years of his reign before becoming the greatest manager in the club’s history.

“I remember the calls for Alex Ferguson to be sacked in his first two years,” Ratcliffe, who owns 30 percent of the club and controls the football side of the business, told The Times podcast The Business. “Look at (Mikel) Arteta at Arsenal. He had a miserable first few years.

«Ultimately we are results-oriented, but we have to be patient and see through the results. I think there are a lot of good things at Manchester United. We have a long-term plan. It is not a light switch.»

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“Ruben has to show over the next three years that he is a great coach.”

While the American Glazer family retains majority control of England’s 20-time champions, Ratcliffe rejected suggestions he could be ordered to sack Amorim.

«There’s no way that would happen because it’s just a good working relationship. They come to the board meetings. We sit down and talk about things,» Ratcliffe said.

«We’ve made mistakes. There’s absolutely no question that we’ve made mistakes as we’ve gone along and talked about them. But no one’s perfect.»

Asked to confirm whether Amorim would opt out of his contract, Ratcliffe said: «Yes. That’s where I would be. Three years because football doesn’t happen overnight.»

Despite United’s shares falling both on and off the pitch, it recently posted record revenues of 666.5 million pounds ($892.1 million) in the year to June 2025, albeit with a loss of 33 million pounds.

Amorim’s squad was boosted in the summer with more than £200m worth of new signings.

“The better your team, the better your football should be, so a lot of what we’ve done in year one is spending an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing,” said Ratcliffe, who completed his acquisition of a minority stake in the club in 2024.

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«If you look at our results last year, we have the highest turnover ever. Profitability is the second highest. We are not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring we have done in this set of results, and we were not in the Champions League.»

«Those figures will get better. Manchester United will, in my opinion, become the most profitable football club in the world and from that will, I hope, come long-term, sustainable, high-level football.»

Ratcliffe also said he wants to revive the club’s Academy, which once produced title winners such as David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville.

“The academy has really dropped at Manchester United,” said Ratcliffe. «You can’t solve the academy problem overnight. It takes time. We just hired a new academy director.»

Published on October 9, 2025