Ruben Amorim speaks out on links with Manchester United's bitter rivals

12/13/2024 09:00 AM

Ruben Amorim says there was never any contact from Manchester City, having previously been touted as a possible replacement for Pep Guardiola.

The 39-year-old was appointed as Manchester United manager last month after an impressive stint in charge of Sporting in Portugal.

Amorim’s success in his home country saw him linked with a number of jobs across Europe, including Liverpool, West Ham and even the Premier League champions.

Guardiola is still very much in charge of Manchester City, but Amorim was mooted as a possible long-term successor for the uber-successful Spaniard.

Whether that situation would ever have come to pass, we will never know, but Amorim says there was no contact or firm interest at all from City before he signed up for the Old Trafford job, despite his Sporting colleague Hugo Viana agreeing to join City.

‘Never, I never had [conversations]. This was my only option,’ Amorim told a press conference on Friday of his links to the Etihad.

‘When Manchester United talked to me, I have no doubts because I had already something in my mind that it could be a possibility. And with Manchester City or Hugo Viana, nothing about that.’

The Red Devils boss will experience the Manchester derby for the first time on Sunday as he takes his team to the Etihad.

Guardiola’s side are in dreadful form by their lofty standards, and indeed by almost any team’s standards, with just one win in their last 10 matches.

Within that run, Amorim managed Sporting to a 4-1 win over City so he knows how to get the better of them, but he is also planning for them at their best.

‘The great teams can respond in any moment and I think they are in a better place than us in type of understanding the game, the way they play, the confidence they have. Even in these kind of moments, we have a lot to focus on in our team,’ he said.

‘Of course we have a strategy to try to win the game with the strategy like it should be. But we are focused just on our team.

‘We will face a great opponent and I'm more focused on our problem. So we have a lot of issues here. So I'm more focused on what we should do on Sunday to win the game. So I'm really focused on my team.’