The day after Manchester United’s dismal 2021/22 season ended, the club put a line through that by unveiling its new manager. While some of its rivals prepared for cup finals, United were moving on and parading Erik ten Hag in front of the media at Old Trafford was a way of signifying that.
An official ‘unveiling’ is a fairly common occurrence when a new manager is appointed and United have always tended to do just that. As one of the biggest, most talked-about clubs in the world, these are major events that lead news and sports bulletins.
In fact, unveiling managers at Old Trafford is such common practice that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer went through that process at the end of March 2019, even though he had been doing the job for more than three months as interim manager. That official confirmation that he was being made the permanent boss was worthy of a special press conference in Old Trafford’s No. 7 suite, with a suited Solskjaer starting it by holding up a shirt with his name and the number one on the back.
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All of this makes it unusual that United have opted against doing any formal unveiling with Ruben Amorim. The 39-year-old has taken over in a quiet international break and his appointment has universally been hailed as a coup and a shrewd move. He is charismatic, successful, one of the most highly-rated coaches in Europe and speaks almost flawless English, yet United have opted to hide him away.
Amorim visited Old Trafford for the first time in his new role on Thursday and recorded MUTV footage while he was there. He sat behind the same press conference desk that Ten Hag did in May 2022. That day, United’s media room was packed out and journalists from every major publication were represented, as well as press travelling from the Netherlands.
Ten Hag wasn’t a great communicator at that time, and his English wasn’t always clear. United had just come off a wretched season, but the mood was upbeat. It almost always is at these events.
To get a little parochial, my club (Shrewsbury Town) appointed a new manager on Tuesday this week and unveiled him on Wednesday. We are bottom of League One, but this kind of event signals a potential change in fortunes. Gareth Ainsworth was joined at the podium by the club’s under-pressure director of football.
When elite-level clubs appoint new managers, they are almost always given their own introductory press conference. In the summer, Arne Slot and Richard Hughes shared media duties in the Dutchman’s first week at Liverpool.
United are surely missing a trick by not having Amorim and sporting director Dan Ashworth hold a joint press conference at Old Trafford. In the era of head coaches, they are often joined by a director of football or sporting director. It would be a chance for Ashworth to trumpet United’s success in attracting such a highly sought-after coach and for Amorim to set the tone.
By leaving his first media duties until the standard pre-Ipswich press conference, United are missing the chance to dominate headlines in a week when international football is the only rival in town. An Amorim unveiling this week would have been a seismic event and would have only spiked the levels of positivity that his appointment has generated.
Instead, his first press conference will clash with United’s Premier League rivals holding their media duties. It will still lead the bulletins and the newspapers, but there will be more of a battle for space. It won’t get the same kind of show it would have got this week or early next week.
There will also be a premium on space. While an event at Old Trafford would have accommodated a larger audience and allowed Portuguese journalists to attend, with United getting plenty of requests for access from Amorim’s homeland, a press conference at Carrington takes place in a much smaller room. Plenty of media will be left disappointed, and the coverage won’t spread as far and wide.
It should be said that United will clearly have their reasons for keeping Amorim under wraps. Whether it is to try and control the hype and perhaps even lessen the excitement levels or to ease any pressure on his shoulders, it’s clearly a change in policy from United’s new football structure and, in many ways, it’s a shame. This is an appointment that really should be celebrated.
