Big-Spending United Put Pressure on Amorim

TDT | Manama

Email : hussainm@newsofbahrain.com

With a new strike force and renewed optimism, the Portuguese coach must turn potential into results

After Manchester United’s worst season in more than half a century, the bar for improvement could hardly be lower, but expectations are once again high. A £200 million outlay on attacking talent has given manager Ruben Amorim the tools he wanted. Now comes the hard part: delivering.

Amorim arrived last November in the depths of crisis, inheriting a side that finished 15th, recorded their fewest ever Premier League points, and scored just 44 goals. Accepting the job under what he described as a “now or never” ultimatum, he asked to be judged only after a full pre-season to embed his ideas. This summer has brought the first true test of that promise.

Benjamin Sesko is set to arrive from RB Leipzig, joining Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo — both proven Premier League scorers — to form an entirely rebuilt forward line. That level of spending seemed unlikely just months ago; co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe had warned in March that United were perilously close to running out of cash when Ineos took over a minority stake.

The lure of Old Trafford remains strong despite United’s absence from European competition for the first time in 11 years. Mbeumo, who had other options, called the club “the biggest in the world” and said he was drawn by its history and fanbase.

Pre-season brought signs of progress: wins over Bournemouth and West Ham, plus an unbeaten U.S. tour, tempered by Bruno Fernandes publicly criticising a “lazy” performance against Everton. The early fixture list is unforgiving — Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea all come within the first five league games — but Amorim has embraced the pressure, insisting: “If I feel we can be competitive, we’ll be OK. I just don’t want to go back to feeling it’s not a 50-50 game.”

United’s attacking problems last season were severe, but defensive frailties were not far behind. Whether this investment in firepower alone is enough to spark a revival will define Amorim’s first full campaign, and perhaps his future at Old Trafford.