Sports management are cut throat positions. You might be hired one day but in a blink of eye, you can find yourself on the curb waiting/looking for a new job. Barring successful managers, every other manager is under that threat. Lately, Ruben Amorim of Manchester United and Wilfred Nancy of Celtic joined Enzo Maresca* in the "sacked club."
Shortly after assuming control of Manchester United in February 2024, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, minority owner and in charge of the club's football operations, gathered his executives for a meeting and said the team's style of play "will be determined in this room." It was curious, then, for some of those present to learn that when Erik ten Hag was sacked in November, the man Ratcliffe wanted to replace him - Sporting CP boss Amorim - had a specific coaching philosophy and no history of compromise.
Ratcliffe was told at the time that hiring Amorim was a risk; he was warned that reshaping the squad to fit a 3-4-3 system - Amorim's preference after having success with it at Sporting - would take millions that the club didn't have.
There was also concern that the academy teams would have to play the same way. The coaching staff Amorim wanted to bring with him from Portugal was "too young and too inexperienced," according to United staff members with contacts at clubs that also looked at Amorim.
Still, Ratcliffe pushed ahead. Ultimately, it didn't work out and on Monday, Amorim was sacked after 14 months and just 24 wins in 63 games. His win percentage of 31.9% is significantly below that of any other permanent manager since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013.
CEO, Omar Berrada and director of football, Jason Wilcox, delivered the news to Amorim in person early on Monday morning at Carrington. The ensuing announcement came less than 24 hours after Amorim's stunning news conference rant following the 1-1 draw with Leeds United on Sunday, during which he demanded to be seen as a "manager, not the coach" and told club bosses -- implying Wilcox, among others, to "do your jobs."
From the moment Amorim took public aim at his employers, the writing was on the wall.
On Monday, United sources insisted the decision was not taken solely because of a breakdown in Amorim's relationships with club bosses - particularly Wilcox - but rather because there hadn't been "enough signs of evolution or progress" on the pitch. Amorim won just 15 of his 47 Premier League games but it's hard to forget the timing of his dismissal coming so soon after his remarks in the Elland Road media theatre.
Those early doubts about Amorim played a part in Dan Ashworth leaving as director of football in December 2024. Ashworth was keen to appoint a coach with Premier League experience but he lost the fight and would lose his job a month later.
United's players were optimistic when he was appointed. Many had grown tired of Ten Hag's strict, sometimes awkward, personality and were ready for a change. Though Amorim's reputation as a charismatic communicator was apparent right away, his immediate impact in other areas was underwhelming.
Some players described his training methods as "basic." There was an emphasis on tactical walk-throughs on the indoor pitch in the academy building as Amorim tried desperately to get his players to understand his 3-4-3 system.
Players not involved in the sessions were often asked to stand on the sidelines and watch. Sometimes, during sessions, Amorim would get so frustrated that he would physically drag players across the pitch until they were in what he considered to be the "right" positions.
Eventually, his stubbornness with United's formation became an issue. According to United sources, he indicated a willingness early on to adapt and evolve his system and style but never seemed to follow through. It was not an ideological battle between playing a back three and a back four, sources told ESPN, it was about sending his team to dominate games and be more attack-minded, as opposed to what was viewed internally as a sometimes overly conservative approach.
In an explosive meeting with Wilcox on Friday - arranged as a debrief after a 1-1 draw with Wolves on 30 December - Amorim was encouraged to be more proactive with how he set up his players. United played well in the first half against Newcastle on Boxing Day with a back four and eventually won 1-0. Against Wolves four days later, Amorim reverted to a back three so he could match up with Rob Edwards' side, despite the visitors arriving at Old Trafford with just two points from 18 games.
Wilcox questioned the decision and Amorim took the feedback badly. According to sources, Wilcox delivered the message in a calm and measured way but was met with what has been described as an "overly emotional" response. Sources with knowledge of the meeting said Amorim "blew up," which followed a pattern in recent weeks of what sources characterise as Amorim's increasing refusal to engage with bosses about tactics and team set-up that were designed to be constructive.
Amorim, meanwhile, viewed the questions interfered with his area of responsibility and, according to sources close to the manager, he believed the pressure to change his system was influenced by continued criticism from former players in the media, including Gary Neville and Paul Scholes. It was noteworthy that during his pointed post-match comments at Leeds, Amorim said: "If people cannot handle the Gary Nevilles and the criticisms of everything, we need to change the club."
United's tactics against Wolves backed a growing feeling within the club that Amorim and his staff had come to fear the Premier League and that he was more concerned with containing even the worst teams rather than trying to attack.
Though these feelings have existed since the end of last season, that 1-1 draw against the Premier League's worst side was enough for several United staff members to lose faith that Amorim was the right man.
There were times during his tenure when Amorim had doubts. He had to be talked into staying in January 2025 after a particularly bad run of form, according to sources in and around the club. After a game last February, Amorim revealed to one source that he knew United wouldn't win just by watching how his players tied their laces before the warm up.
In the same conversation, Amorim confided his fear that the club was "broken" and that he didn't know how to fix it because the players he had inherited were "fragile." In particular, he was shocked at what he saw as a lack of physicality within the squad and on numerous occasions, Amorim became irate because players were losing one-on-one duels too often.
Though Ten Hag's training involved lots of running, Amorim asked his players to spend more time in the gym, especially during the summer tour of the United States.
There were issues off the pitch, too. Amorim was hired, in part, because of his reputation for being a good communicator - something Ten Hag lacked - but he repeatedly ran into trouble. His comments after a defeat to Brighton in January 2025 that the team was "maybe the worst" in the club's 147-year history weren't well received in the dressing room, according to sources close to the squad.
The United hierarchy was further alarmed, a club source said, when Amorim aimed digs at striker, Benjamin Sesko and defender, Patrick Dorgu, earlier this season and was also unimpressed with his criticism of the academy.
Amorim was told in the summer to be more guarded with his public comments. However, he insisted that if he had to do interviews, he would use them to send public messages to players in the hope it would elicit a positive response.
This strategy backfired last season, when one senior player was criticised for a lack of intensity in games and found out when he read the quotes on his phone. The coaching staff said it was the type of critique that should have been done face-to-face.
Then, in another television interview last season, Amorim was so outspoken about a player that the club felt it was better to ask the broadcaster to remove the comments before they were aired. The broadcaster agreed.
Amorim was brought in to connect with the players, having been a player at Benfica and Braga but he was much more distant with the squad than expected. He compartmentalised everything and wouldn't get involved in areas that he didn't believe were his concern often leaving coaches and staff to handle their duties without interference. It was a departure from Ten Hag's style, with the Dutchman always keen to know everything, including travel plans for games and players' media commitments.
In the summer, Amorim said he created a six-man leadership group of Bruno Fernandes, Lisandro Martínez, Diogo Dalot, Harry Maguire, Noussair Mazraoui and Tom Heaton because: "There are some things that in the last year I had to deal with." The inference was that he wanted the dressing room to police itself, though there were moments when he played a nurturing role.
After young defender, Leny Yoro, was visibly upset following a mistake against Crystal Palace in November, Amorim made time in the days after the game to take the France international to one side and show him a video that contained only the things he had done well at Selhurst Park.
Amorim tried to connect the players better with the fans by changing the pre-match routine at Old Trafford so the team arrived when a crowd of supporters would be gathered at the entrance; players were also told they had to stop for pictures and autographs either before or after games.
Amorim would usually spend nearly an hour with fans after games - regardless of the time or weather - but his disappointment showed after the draw against Wolves, when he went straight to his car with his family.
As well as trying to build a relationship with fans, Amorim also went out of his way to build a team spirit he felt was lacking when he arrived. Players returning to training after injury or celebrating appearance milestones were welcomed with head slaps before each session. He ordered small, circular tables to be swapped for two long tables, to avoid cliques forming at mealtimes and there was a "family day" organized at Carrington after the damaging Carabao Cup defeat to League Two side Grimsby Town in August.
Amorim was annoyed, per a source familiar with the situation, when some players didn't attend a BBQ organised after the Europa League final defeat to Tottenham at a time he felt they needed to stick together. To him, team bonding was important - players were asked to stay behind after training for birthdays, each one celebrated with a personalised cake and a speech.
To Amorim, speaking in front of each other was seen as a vital tool for the growth of what he considered to be a young group. Had he got his way, however, he would have worked with more senior pros instead of what he felt was such a developmental squad.
Not many tears are being shed at Ruben Amorim’s departure but even those who question it won’t after knowing the story of Man Utd’s summer transfer window.
From the outside looking in, Man Utd had a fairly good transfer window, getting two proven players in Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo and adding potential in Senne Lammens and Benjamin Sesko.
It’s extremely puzzling, therefore, to see how Amorim conducted himself in the summer transfer window. The Athletic reports that Amorim was "aggravated" in the summer because he wanted Ollie Watkins and Emi Martinez to arrive.
INEOS, tasked with keeping the long-term vision alive, signed Benjamin Sesko and Senne Lammens instead, which infuriated Amorim. To add to that, Amorim also wanted Antoine Semenyo in the summer instead of Bryan Mbeumo, so that makes it at least two wrong calls out of three, considering how impressive Mbeumo has been for the club.
Even the Watkins one is dicey because he would have cost £40m as a 29-year-old, the kind of signing no financially disciplined club makes these days.
It aligns with his curious treatment of the youth academy as well, which means that by the time Amorim left the club, he was no longer the man United wanted to hire from Sporting. Had United bought Martinez and Watkins, they’d be stuck with massive wages for two players who’d decline in a couple of years and have no resale value.
For Amorim not to understand that and just look out for himself, betrays everything he talked about in public, where he claimed to care about the club. The reality is increasingly looking like he was a panicked man caught off guard by the size of the job and just wanted to spend his way out of trouble with no regard for tomorrow.
INEOS’ reasons for sacking him might be questionable but ultimately, the right decision has been made. He was willing to put this club in financial ruin for an odd trophy built on the back of 30-year-olds.
Ruben Amorim leaves Manchester United as their worst manager in the Premier League era but even he leaves with the legacy of creating something crucial and lasting. Every manager since Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United can be called a failure relative to expectations but there have been mitigating factors for them.
Ruben Amorim doesn’t have much, as he didn’t win a trophy, didn’t play good football, didn’t blood youngsters and was backed well in the market.
Despite all those shortcomings, his legacy at Man Utd might end up ageing as the most important one. David Moyes had Adnan Januzaj, regardless of how that ended. Louis van Gaal had Marcus Rashford. Jose Mourinho had Scott McTominay and trophies.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got the DNA of the club in its perfect form and put smiles on the faces of United fans and even Erik ten Hag had two trophies plus Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho.
However, none of them can say their legacy is what Amorim managed in just 14 months at Old Trafford and which, if handled correctly, will make the biggest long-term change to the club’s prospects.
For once, any new manager who walks into the club will not have to deal with difficult characters who are prone to downing tools for the manager. The squad, as built currently, is largely full of model professionals, as evidenced by the flood of messages wishing Amorim the best.
He has, in essence, finally achieved the cultural reset in the dressing room that was the undoing of basically every manager that preceded him.
Part of the credit for that also goes to INEOS’ recruitment because they’ve identified characters who would suit the dressing room instead of just going for players who play well.
Amorim’s hard stance on commitment will see his successor walk into a dressing room fully confident that everyone in there wants to play for the club.
Players come and go as the managers do and trophies are won and forgotten before the chase for the next one starts. However, if the club is to achieve long-term success, the foundation needs to be right, which begins with having certain day-to-day standards in the dressing room.
It’s why Amorim’s cultural reset is equally as crucial and much more long-lasting than any debut he could have given, or a trophy he could have won. Nobody is mistaking him for a success at Old Trafford, but if the managers who follow him see some success, Amorim should be credited with tackling the rot at the ground level to begin with.
The chaotic and enthralling 4-4 draw with Bournemouth at Old Trafford was the game of the season so far and encapsulated both the league and Manchester United in their current guises.
At times and for almost the entirety of the first half, it was by far the best football played under Amorim with an intensity not seen at Old Trafford in many years. At other junctures, the familiar issues of game management and question marks over the squad's mentality reared their heads. In the end, it was Manchester United fighting back from a 3-2 deficit but also throwing away leads on three occasions, to drop more valuable points from winning positions.
In short, it made little to no sense, but neither do Manchester United right now. Amorim lost just one of his final eight games in charge - arguably one of his better runs since taking charge, but other issues were undoubtedly at play, amid rumours of bust-ups with more senior club executives.
On the pitch, some would argue, the current run epitomises the inconsistency shown throughout Amorim's time in the dugout.
Heading to Scotland where Wilfried Nancy’s woeful reign as Celtic’s manager has ended after 33 days – the shortest managerial career in the Scottish club’s history.
The 48-year-old French coach was hired from the Major League Soccer side, Columbus Crew, on a two-and-a-half year contract on 4 December. He was in charge for only eight matches, six of which ended in defeat, before being sacked by the crisis-hit Scottish champions on Monday. A 3-1 home defeat by Rangers on Saturday proved the final straw. Celtic led 1-0 at half-time before a second-half collapse prompted more protests towards the club’s deeply unpopular board and their most recent managerial appointment.
Nancy became the first Celtic manager to lose his first two matches before suffering a humiliating defeat by St Mirren in the Scottish League Cup final. When his next game ended in a 2-1 reverse at Dundee United, it was the first time since 1978 that Celtic had lost four games in succession.
Nancy won two matches – against 10-man Aberdeen and the bottom club Livingston – and presided over a calamitous defence that failed to keep a clean sheet and conceded 18 goals in eight games, one more than in the previous 24 matches.
In the end, it all boiled down to yet another massive gamble from those running the club. A 33-day experiment - a grand leap of faith - which blew up in their faces in spectacular fashion. Nancy wanted to play a certain way, in a certain formation regardless of whether he had players able to turn his vision into a workable reality.
Rather than use what he had to the best of their ability, he tried to shoehorn round pegs into square holes and his defence - using the word loosely - wasn’t able to stop conceding goals. So many people will look at the results of Wilfried Nancy’s tenure as being the reason for his departure. For the most part, they’d be right.
However, the manner of those defeats is what did for him in the end. A stubbornness to play a system his group was not equipped to, defensively passive and meek, while unconvincing in attack. Leads were surrendered and against Motherwell they were thoroughly outplayed. Nancy relentlessly argued there was progress, but nobody else could see it.
Celtic podcaster, Tino Callaghan, has been talking to BBC Radio Scotland and calls the situation at Parkhead a "shambles." "I was taken aback this afternoon," he said. "I thought if Celtic were going to pull the trigger, it would be after the game on Saturday. He's gone now though and the big question is - what next?"
"I wonder if Martin O'Neill would step back in. Maybe Shaun Maloney would be more likely. It all depends if the club decide to bring in an interim or permanent manager. It's a shambles. A galvanising figure tends to bring everyone on board, but we did that a couple of months ago and now we find ourselves back in this position."
"There's so much going on off and on the park. It's such a crucial decision. Nancy's style is so unique and for any system like they to work, you need a full pre-season and a transfer window. It's almost as though he was doomed to fail. It's such a puzzling decision in hindsight."
The signs were there right from the first team-sheet that things could go spectacularly wrong for Wilfried Nancy. He played three defenders against league-leaders, Hearts.
It wasn't just the three defenders, either. A back three comprised entirely of left-footed players, one of whom - Kieran Tierney - is a more natural wing-back. As for the wing-backs that day, two forwards whose defensive attributes are not their best qualities: Yang Hyun-Yun and Sebastian Tounekti.
All subsequent selections looked a variation on a theme: players not deployed in their natural, favoured positions in a system the side didn't look like it fully understood. Celtic were unable to stop conceding goals, which came as no great surprise given the roles players were being asked to fulfil. Luke McCowan as a wing-back. Anthony Ralston as a centre-back.
Wilfried Nancy was apparently not one for round pegs in round holes and it has cost him his job in just over a month.
On days like this, when a manager falls, the immediate reaction is to think about where it all went wrong, the timeline of doom and the moments where the writing started appearing on the wall.
With Wilfried Nancy, there's no need for any of that because it was never right in the first place. There were no turning points in this saga, no twists in the plot.
Nancy's appointment was one of the greatest blunders Celtic have made in their history. A relative rookie on a bad run with Columbus Crew - they finished seventh in Major League Soccer - it was a punt based on little more than the hipster vibes of Paul Tisdale, the now former head of football operations.
Tisdale didn't open his mouth to fans or media in his brief time in a powerful position at Celtic Park but he did a whole lot of damage. If Nancy ranks extremely highly in the club's most calamitous calls then Tisdale is on a par or, perhaps even, slightly ahead of him given that it was the self-styled 'Doctor Football' who championed Nancy to the club's board.
Nancy never got out of the blocks, his two wins from eight games coming in a flawed victory over bottom-of-the-table Livingston and a triumph over 10-man Aberdeen, who have also just sacked their manager.
All memory of Nancy's reign - if you want to call it that - will be shovelled under a carpet now by anybody and everybody culpable in the process of appointing him. If they're all true to recent form, none of them will speak, none will apologise, none will show humility by accepting that they got this woefully wrong.
The fans will have to make-do with a short written statement. Let them eat cake, in other words. Nancy's laidback arrival - spending just 15 minutes talking with Martin O'Neill before ripping up everything O'Neill had done to stabilise things - was in stark contrast to the unceremonious manner of his exit. O'Neill, as interim, was there longer than Nancy.
The Frenchman talked about building castles in the sky. He laboured under the fatal impression that he had time to deliver his vision and that he deserved patience. In his parallel universe he said that winning wasn't everything while his masterpiece was under construction.
It was all about the "process." He called on people to look at his past record as evidence of his ability. "Do your job," he told journalists the day before failing to do his in a 3-1 home loss to Rangers, following on from a 2-0 defeat by Motherwell.
Nancy and Tisdale had to go. What's also obvious is that the hapless state of the club goes way deeper than those two over-promoted characters. It goes back to who ratified their appointments and why. It goes back to Celtic not just losing their way on the field but off it. It goes to the very top.
Celtic have now lost a manager, a head of football operations and a chairman (Peter Lawwell, driven out by an abusive element in the support) since Hogmanay. The lack of communication from the club is remarkable. Never mind the extreme elements of the support, regular fans - the vast, vast majority - feel a profound disconnection, an alienation from what is going on.
There is a sense of entitlement among some, for sure and it's easy to poke fun at that given all the titles Celtic have won. But, elsewhere, there's just an anger about a club on the drift, making lousy decisions, going backwards domestically and in Europe while sitting on close to £80m in the bank.
These fans talk of a lack of ambition, a lack of a plan under the current board, led by Michael Nicholson, the chief executive, and Dermot Desmond, the major shareholder, and the power in the shadows.
Celtic's vision seems to amount to staying ahead of Rangers and seeing what they can get out of Europe, if anything.
Brendan Rodgers railed against that thinking and his relationship with the powerbrokers at the club crashed and burned. There was a callousness about his exit and the brutal words about him from Desmond. Rodgers, for all his flaws, did not deserve that.
His assistant manager, John Kennedy, also left at that time. Kennedy had been at Celtic for 27 years as player and coach and yet he was given barely a sentence in a statement when he departed. He deserved more.
There's not a big picture view at Celtic or not one that's apparent. Celtic could finish off their stadium and make it a near 80 000 citadel, one of the continent's best, but they haven't done it. They could build one of football's greatest museums - lord knows they have enough icons and great moments to fill it - but there's no sign of it.
They could have deployed a modern and razor-sharp scouting system but they haven't done that either. They bob along, cash-rich and content with bossing it parochially but even that is now at risk. The emergence of Hearts and the support they're getting from Tony Bloom and Jamestown Analytics is threatening to change the game in a very significant way.
Celtic thought they could take a gamble on Nancy because they couldn't imagine a world where any other side could rival their hold over the league title, their bread and butter. So they've gone back to the future, to O'Neill until the end of the season. It makes sense. O'Neill will bring structure and stability on the field.
There won't be so many bewildered looks on the faces of the Celtic players now. The system won't cause them sleepless nights anymore. His return should galvanise things but the fact that the board have had to turn to him again is illustrative of their malaise.
On Monday, the board undid two mistakes that should never have been made but the humiliation of these past few weeks and this season as a whole should spark some deep introspection among the hierarchy at Celtic Park.
Celtic are six points behind the league leaders, Hearts, and have managed to out-do Rangers in terms of disastrous managerial appointments this season. Russell Martin lasted 123 days and 17 games in the shortest managerial reign in Rangers’ history.
*Follow up: Liam Rosenior has replaced Enzo Maresca as Chelsea manager.
Before starting this post, I thought of the title. I thought there ought to be a "sack club" where all managers have been sacked during a singular season come together. After all, there will be numerous managers who get the boot. They can exchange ideas on how to improve their aspects of play. It's a way to make themselves better as managers.
I don't feel anything about the Amorim sacking. I have been frustrated by the results. It's hard to say whether they'll win, draw or lose. I was appalled by the behaviour after the Leeds result. I can only hope that United hire a proper manager who will deliver success.
I believe Celtic (and for the matter, Manchester United) should've done their homework and done more research. Hiring a manager that doesn't fit the mould of the club shouldn't be done. They can mess up everything the club has built. It's a high risk, low reward system.