Manchester United’s season has been turbulent even by recent standards, but there was a period when some people at Carrington sensed the prospect of even more upheaval.
The week in February that Sir Jim Ratcliffe visited Carrington coincided with a freakish sequence of injuries which left United’s campaign looking in danger of unravelling badly. Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte, and Toby Collyer were all forced off early from that Monday’s session, which carried a heavy athletic load, while Amad sustained damaged ankle ligaments three days later as Ratcliffe, by coincidence, watched from the sidelines.
Amad’s injury, caused as he rolled his foot pressing Andre Onana, may have been bad luck. But the trio of midfield issues amid the intensity of the first session that week, following two days off after a Friday night FA Cup tie against Leicester City, was discussed among staff. Mainoo and Collyer went down with muscle problems and Ugarte suffered a dead leg.
Ratcliffe was present at United’s training base for a medical meeting involving Ruben Amorim to scrutinise the setbacks, which left United fielding a bench full of academy players for that Sunday’s game at Tottenham Hotspur. There were tensions around the subject.
Some observers got the impression that Amorim was seriously contemplating walking away, such was his frustration with the performances and working environment. Amorim’s public statements around this time about facing an uncertain future, when he even said that the sack can be “liberating”, added substance to the suspicion. He said similar things at Carrington.
Amorim received assurances on transfer targets and future plans from chief executive Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox, key figures of communication for Ratcliffe, and stayed. Meanwhile, Ratcliffe provided interesting context on his relationship with Amorim during his interview with The Times and The Telegraph a month later, on March 10.
“I really, really like Ruben,” he said. “He’s a very thoughtful guy. Every time I go to the training ground, I speak to Ruben. I sit down and have a cup of coffee with him and tell him where it’s going wrong, and he tells me to f*** off. I like him.”
