Man Utd’s awful Europa League final - Amorim’s vow, Garnacho tensions, Glazer and Ratcliffe booed at staff party

Ruben Amorim trudged slowly onto the pitch, first making his way to his victorious adversary but putting into the embrace a fraction of the enthusiasm that Ange Postecoglou offered.

Player by player, Amorim then made his way around his defeated team, each one evidently in a state of quiet desolation that invited nothing more than a cursory hug and handshake. Nobody was in the mood for chewing the fat on what has become an utterly emaciated season.

Advertisement

Amorim cupped his hand round the back of Casemiro’s neck as his eyes focused down on the turf, a man possibly contemplating how his perfect record in five Champions League finals had become blemished with a loss in Europe’s second-tier competition.

Harry Maguire continued to look straight ahead as Amorim slapped palms and pressed chests, holding a thousand-yard stare after at last playing in a Europa League final, having missed the 2021 edition through injury, but once again being unable to lift silverware.

Maguire was sent up top again but without success (David Ramos/Getty Images)

He might also have been wondering how, 24 hours on from saying he did not want to be “going up front chasing game”, the whistle blew with him having once again gone up front chasing a game.

Maguire became animated when Cristian Romero tried to offer commiserations, ignoring the gesture then bursting into attack when the Tottenham Hotspur captain approached Diogo Dalot. Maguire jabbed his finger at Romero, who had taken less than that to go down more than once during the game. Maguire got booked for a faint tug on Romero, who had tumbled in the box in a similar scenario to win his team a foul and stop United from recycling the ball.

Romero revelled in being the villain and his duel with Maguire was an emblem of the contest at large — Spurs sitting back on an advantage and making things ugly. Postecoglou changed his approach in the Europa League, abandoning the high line that had been his platinum-embossed calling card in the Premier League, possibly from the liberation of being on the way out. Winning this trophy became all that mattered, by any means.

Amorim has been, up to now, planning for a future beyond this campaign, and so he still felt compelled to stick to his “idea” and configure his players in the 3-4-2-1 system, despite the urgency of requiring a goal. Too often in the closing stages, United had a single player in the box, and it was only when Luke Shaw charged up, making an extra man, that Guglielmo Vicario was called into a save.

Advertisement

Perhaps this was on Amorim’s mind as he took a long route to Amad, who was sitting on the grass, then picked up a water bottle and came to Bruno Fernandes. United’s captain has dragged his team along too many times to count but he endured a bad game of errant passes and awkward choices. He gave away the ball twice in quick succession in midfield to enable Pape Matar Sarr to burst forwards and ultimately cross for the winning goal – the exact opportunity Spurs were geared up for.

It remains to be seen what Fernandes does next (Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)

What does a campaign without Champions League football mean for Fernandes’ future? The lucrative offer from Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia is genuine, and he has a decision to make. His agent, Miguel Pinho, posted on Instagram after the game, “Sometimes life is just unfair, you deserved more.”

“I have always been honest,” Fernandes told reporters after the game. “If the club thinks it’s time to part ways because they want to do some cashing in or whatever, it is what it is. Football sometimes is like this.

“I’ve always said I will be here until the club says to me that it’s time to go. I’m eager to do more, to be able to bring the club to the great days. The day that the club thinks that I’m too much or it’s time to part ways, football is like this, you never know it. But I’ve always said it and I keep my word in the same way.”

Alejandro Garnacho’s brother, Roberto, also took to Instagram with a pointed message. He said Garnacho was “thrown under the bus”.

Amorim had said in his press conference how Garnacho’s miss against Athletic Club at Old Trafford helped inform his call to start Mason Mount.

“It’s hard for everyone. The season was s***, both now losing the final tonight, and in the league where we didn’t beat anyone, that’s the truth,” Garnacho told reporters. “Up until the final, I’ve played every round, and today to play 20 minutes… I don’t know. I’m going to try to enjoy the summer and see what happens after.”

Garnacho hinted at his frustrations after the game (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Kobbie Mainoo, a key saviour against Lyon, got even fewer minutes, though, coming on with the clock already at 90. This final did nothing to alter the suspicion that, based on football as much as finance, these two academy graduates will be on the market once the window opens.

That is the kind of decision Sir Jim Ratcliffe will be heavily involved in. He had the dubious honour of presenting the medals, meaning a close encounter with Amorim in front of the television cameras. Ratcliffe gave the head coach a hug and then left the pitch as the last United representative, even behind Leny Yoro, who had been circling the penalty area on his own, unable to look at Tottenham’s trophy lift.

Amorim said: “If the board and fans feel I am not the right guy, I will go in the next day without any conversation about compensation, but I will not quit. I am really confident on my job. I will not change anything in the way I do things.”

Ratcliffe offers Amorim an embrace — now the head coach must be backed (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Amorim’s credibility takes a hit for not getting over the line here, but United insisted they would be sticking with him, whatever the result. Ratcliffe, chief executive Omar Berrada, and technical director Jason Wilcox need to give him the players suitable for his formation.

Talks are at an advanced stage with Matheus Cunha, while Liam Delap held talks in Manchester on Monday. It remains to be seen if the lack of Champions League football affects those moves.

Staff at United’s screening to watch the game in Manchester were concerned about the financial impact of that failure, given Berrada said in February that the second redundancy round was based on United qualifying for the Europa League for the next four seasons.

The event was at Diecast, a trendy warehouse venue in Ancoats. Inevitably, there was gallows humour about this being a death knell. When Ratcliffe and Avram Glazer appeared on-screen, boos rang out among the 1,000-strong crowd of staff and family, once during the game and then again at full time. The mood afterwards was described as very sombre.

Avram Glazer, Ratcliffe and Sir Alex Ferguson in Bilbao (Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)

Inside the San Mames, most United fans left at the final whistle. A few hundred stayed, but could be seen remonstrating with the players for a lack of acknowledgement. Eventually, after getting their runner-up medals, United’s team did applaud the crowd during a quick circle of their half.

Those who paid so much and committed time to reaching Bilbao could have expected more from a performance after an awful Premier League season. They tolerated a run of two draws and six defeats in the hope that energies would be channelled into silverware. Instead, this result will colour so much about United’s summer and beyond.

(Top photo: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Click here to read article