Ruben Amorim stands accused of ‘rampage’ as THREE kids ‘brutally’ attacked

Mediawatch often begins this column with ‘we don’t know where to start with…’ but sometimes a headline lands and there really is only one place to start.

Ruben Amorim goes on rampage against Man Utd academy with three popular stars singled out

The use of the word ‘rampage’ by The Sun here is – and we do not say this lightly – absolutely mental.

A ‘rampage’ is ‘a period of violent and uncontrollable behaviour by a group of people’. It is not ‘a slightly odd series of comments by one man quite obviously getting fed up of being constantly asked about Kobbie Mainoo‘.

‘RUBEN AMORIM has gone on the attack against the Manchester United academy again,’ writes Samuel Luckhurst. ‘Amorim, who has copped flak for his reluctance to use the club’s academy players, suggested three graduates had been overpromoted.’

Let’s park the concept that Amorim is probably right for a minute, and wonder if a man can go ‘on the attack’ by pointing out that he played Toby Collyer, Harry Amass and Chido Obi last season, so it’s hardly like he is averse to playing Manchester United Academy players.

He was literally asked if Mainoo could play in the Casemiro role and pointed out that Collyer had played there last season but added:

“He is from the academy, he played here, went to West Bromwich and he’s not playing. He played for Manchester United, so sometimes it’s not because he’s from the academy or whatever. It’s the situation that’s happened.”

Amorim has a point. And it was clearly neither a ‘rampage’ nor an ‘attack’, just a man getting rather frustrated at being asked seven straight questions about a player not currently in his team.

This is so very clearly the result of one of those post-press conference huddles where everybody decides that the ‘line’ is an Academy attack, despite it being very clearly absolutely nothing of the sort.

What Amorim said was this about Mainoo:

“Of course, he’s not playing so many games, but Kobbs, he had opportunities, especially last year. Everyone had.

“Especially last year, everyone had. Amass is now struggling in the Championship. Chido is not always a starter in U21. All these guys played when a lot of people were saying, sack the manager.”

Again, he has a point. He was playing Academy players when United were losing games and he was under pressure, so why is he getting flak when he is not playing Academy players and United are in better form?

As for ‘popular stars’…what an absolute load of bollocks. There is no world in which Harry Amass is described as a ‘popular star’ unless you are trying to have a needless dig at Amorim.

And there’s no way Toby Collyer is a ‘kid’ either, but the Daily Mail will have their fun. This is their actual top story on Monday morning…

Ruben Amorim attacks Man United’s academy and NAMES three kids who haven’t hit his standards and are now ‘struggling’ in his bid to justify axeing Kobbie Mainoo, who now wants out

He has ‘attacked’ the Academy by *checks notes* pointing out that he has used Academy players in the past and they are not now in his plans? This is getting weird now.

Ruben Amorim has called into question the quality of Manchester United’s academy graduates, with the Red Devils boss taking aim at three fan-favourites.

That hyphen makes us itch, but not as much as this blatant weaponisation of some pretty anodyne quotes to suggest that Amorim has launched an unsolicited attack on the United Academy.

‘Amorim has insisted he won’t be swayed by sentiment’? What an absolute dick. Won’t somebody please think of the children. Especially the 21-year-old ones.

Over to the Mirror now, and well…

Man United fans hit back as Ruben Amorim takes brutal swipe at THREE academy stars

Now it’s a ‘brutal swipe’?! Let’s just check this ‘brutal swipe’ again…

On Collyer: “He is from the academy, he played here, went to West Bromwich and he’s not playing.”

On Amass: “Amass is now struggling in the Championship.”

On Chido: “Chido is not always a starter in U21.”

If that’s ‘brutal’ then the modern world is really not for you; it’s really just an update of the current situation of those three players. It’s easy to point out that Amass is playing well for a poor Sheffield Wednesday side like this is some kind of gotcha, but is anybody really arguing that he should be starting for Manchester United?

The BBC‘s Simon Stone writes that ‘question marks over Ruben Amorim’s commitment to Manchester United’s academy will only have heightened following the head coach’s rather strange comments before Monday’s Premier League game with Bournemouth at Old Trafford’ and we think he’s probably right that they were ‘rather strange comments’ rather than a ‘rampage’, but we cannot help but ask one question:

Why does Ruben Amorim have to commit to Manchester United’s academy if the players are not very good?