Postecoglou aims ‘dig’ at Amorim ahead of Manchester United’s ‘brutal’ 12-player clear-out

Ruben Amorim will sell 12 players and replace them all in one ‘brutal’ transfer window, including Antony after Manchester United ‘recall option explored’.

You’re fired
After beating Manchester United on Sunday, Ange Postecoglou was asked at the end of his post-match press conference whether he “has sympathy or is it empathy for Ruben Amorim?”.

The response was precisely what you would expect:

“Mate…”

See?

“…if I check my office, I don’t have any sympathy cards from other managers, so I can tell you that that hasn’t happened. But there’s definitely empathy there. I mean, I could see today, Ruben, you know, he’s sort of had to put a team together, put players out of position, put kids on the bench. Well, welcome to my world. But that’s for one game. Now do that for two months. Do that for two months. Any club. Do that for two months, because I thought Man United were good today considering all that. We had our days when we were good, we beat Liverpool in this spell, we had other significant victories, but do that for two months.”

If you heard those words or read that quote and come to the conclusion that Postecoglou was pointing out that dealing with injuries is a natural part of the job he has had to contend with more than most over the last few weeks, congratulations for you are sensible.

If you heard those words or read that quote and believe Postecoglou ‘fired savage warning’ (The Sun website), ‘fired message’ (Daily Mirror website) or ‘aimed “welcome to my world” dig’ (Goal.com with our personal favourite) at Ruben Amorim, commiserations for you are silly.

“There’s definitely empathy there”, “any club” and “I thought Man United were good today considering all that” were slight giveaways that this was not, in fact, one manager having a completely unnecessary and unprovoked pop at another. But when the reality is fairly mundane, why not manufacture some beef?

UNDERSTAND me, sugar
Fair play to the MailOnline, who don’t even pretend to value the opinions of the writers they pay handsomely to send to actual football matches.

Sure, Matt Barlow was in attendance and can write a nice little match report on Tottenham’s victory over Manchester United, but that can be buried laughably far down a homepage topped by this:

‘Ruben Amorim ‘doesn’t UNDERSTAND’ a key part of his job at Man United – and he’s making things harder for himself as a result – says Micah Richards’

Mediawatch quite likes Micah Richards but in no world should that be the biggest news in all of football at theoretically the busiest time of the week for traffic.

But hey, we’re here now and interested to learn what Amorim ‘doesn’t UNDERSTAND’ about being manager of Manchester United, a field in which Richards is obviously an expert.

“When he said this is the worst team in United history, whatever quotes he wants to use, what he doesn’t understand is that’s a headline every single week.”

A reminder of the full quote Amorim used when describing Manchester United as such in January:

“We are the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United. I know you [media] want headlines but I am saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change that. Here you go: your headlines.”

Feels like he UNDERSTANDS full well. It would be really weird if he didn’t think anything a Manchester United manager says in 2025 is a headline regardless.

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Total recall
One thing other people seem to struggle to UNDERSTAND is the concept of a recall clause in a loan.

Antony has scored three goals and assisted one in four games for Real Betis since joining from Manchester United in January. He has been very good indeed. But under no circumstances was he ever going to return to Old Trafford early from that loan because that would be incredibly stupid for a variety of reasons, injury crisis or not.

He barely played under Amorim after looking deeply unsuited to Premier League football for two and a half years and neither player, manager nor club were happy with the situation. Scoring against Celta Vigo, Gent and Real Sociedad changes nothing other than boosting his potential value ahead of a summer sale which all parties should welcome. Even if they can, there is absolutely zero suggestion Manchester United would recall him to improve their chances of going from 15th to 14th in the Premier League table.

But the Daily Mirror website like a running theme so we get this on Sunday morning:

‘Antony’s Man Utd recall option after Amad injury and ignored Ruben Amorim plea’

Before this about 24 hours and a defeat to Tottenham later:

‘Antony sends fresh message to Man Utd bosses as recall option explored’

And while ‘recall option explored’ makes it sound an awful lot like Manchester United are exploring his recall option, that is just a happy (and clicky) coincidence; it is only actually explored in an article which concludes Antony a) is ineligible to play in the Premier League after being omitted from their squad, and b) is ineligible to play in the Europa League because he has featured in the knockouts for Real Betis.

Of course, we should also consider c) Manchester United were never going to send a player out on loan on January 25 and recall him within a month even if they could.

Cheaper by the dozen
They will be busy enough this summer overseeing a ‘brutal’ 12-player clear-out anyway, according to the Daily Mirror website.

Can’t think of any potential problems in selling Andre Onana, Altay Bayindir, Matthijs de Ligt, Tyrell Malacia, Luke Shaw, Mason Mount, Casemiro, Antony, Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee, then releasing Victor Lindelof and Christian Eriksen, signing players to replace them and doing all of that in a single transfer window. It’s a foolproof plan.

Least surprising headline of the day
‘Casemiro names his favourite coaches – and nobody from Manchester United makes the cut’ – Manchester Evening News.

You mean Casemiro preferred his time winning Champions Leagues with Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti or the Copa America with Tite over a Carabao Cup and controlled career decline?

Of course ‘there was no mention of Ten Hag or Amorim’. In other news, Raheem Sterling has named his favourite coaches and nobody from Arsenal makes the cut.

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