The Long Game
Man Utd and Amorim were improving and the Premier League's best performing clubs shows prioritising stability can make the results well worth the wait.
In Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta, and Unai Emery, the Premier League’s current top three boast three of the four longest-serving managers in the top flight. That particular top four is completed by Fulham boss Marco Silva, whose four seasons in west London have seen him win promotion, then achieve three consecutive midtable finishes in the top flight, Fulham’s best run in over a decade.
Stability is paying off, even if it didn’t always work out immediately. The same can be said at Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, whose managers started slowly but have instead done mightily impressive jobs, and at Leeds, where Daniel Farke was on the brink of being sacked not long ago but now has the club on a seven-game unbeaten run, their best such top flight run since 2001.
Knowing whether to stick with a manager is complicated. More can almost always be achieved yet there’s never any guarantee that someone else comes in and does a better job. On the contrary, things can always get worse. And how long should a manager even get before a club decides to go back to the drawing board?
When Arteta made it to a year in the Arsenal job, the team was 15th in the Premier League. Almost halfway through the season, a relegation battle felt like a real possibility, with Arsenal four points above the drop zone and winless in seven games.
Two months later, as Arteta’s tenure reached 14 months, Arsenal were 10th and there was a feeling that a corner had been turned. He’s lucky he had the chance to turn it.
After 14 months in charge at Old Trafford, Ruben Amorim’s reign came to an end on Monday morning.
Now, I don’t think that’s a particularly mad decision, especially as he followed up Sunday’s draw at Leeds United with post-match press conference rant about his position. Clearly there were issues behind the scenes and the results under Amorim haven’t been good enough for him to yield the sort of power it sounds like he wanted.
But … why stick with him for this long in the first place only to do this now?
Manchester United have, for the most part, been pretty abject under the Portuguese, just as they had been for a while under Erik ten Hag. He has been (almost) unwavering in his commitment to his 3-4-3 system and United recruited (at huge expense) to cater to that system. The United careers of Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were all but tossed aside for the Portuguese, with Kobbie Mainoo’s long heading the same way.
What happened in the last few weeks that convinced United that, actually, any stability or longevity envisaged with Amorim was no longer worth holding onto?
Reserve the right to change your mind as things change and develop, but the latest evidence is not evidence that really works against or justifies parting with the Portuguese.
The club pushed on with Amorim in the summer, spending big money to recruit players who would fit his system. They stuck with Amorim when United made their worst start to a season since 1992, picking up just four points from the opening four games and just seven from the opening six.
And now, since September, United have the fourth most points in the league, the fourth most goals, and the second fewest defeats.
They have the second highest expected goals total in the Premier League this season and are third for expected goal difference. They have taken the most shots in the league and conceded the sixth fewest.
All after finishing 15th last season, their lowest finish in a league campaign since 1975.
Of United’s 20 Premier League games this season, their xG has bettered the opposition’s by at least 1 on seven occasions. That’s something they managed just eight times in all of last season, and seven times in the entire season before that. It’s something Aston Villa have not done once in 2025-26.
Performances had undeniably improved. Results had gotten better. The league table looks alright. United have been patchy, inconsistent, not at the level defensively for the most part, but when they’ve looked good they really have looked good.
And that despite some injury issues: 19-year-old centre-back Ayden Heaven has, for instance, made as many league starts as Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martinez combined this season.
And now? Now Manchester United don’t have a manager.
Having handpicked and then recruited for Amorim, they’ve sacked him, and the departure in the dugout departure will also almost certainly mean the departure from the plan the club had followed over the last two transfer windows.
Amorim seemed abrasive and inflexible but United had bet on him, then backed him, and have now sacked him when things weren’t actually all that bad.
Progress was more delayed and less impactful than would’ve wanted but it was, compared to last season and the start of this one, but it was progress all the same.
Maybe they were only at square two or three, but United now go back to square one once more. And they do so mid-season once more, having backed a manager once more, when they could’ve acted more decisively in the summer and everyone would have understood it.
And maybe they get lucky with their next appointment and finally, at the eighth time of asking in 12.5 years, but that appointment will now have to wade through yet more uncertainty and more upheaval, just as their predecessors have. There’s hardly ever time to clear the debris and lay out a new blueprint before that new path is already collecting its doubters. It’s hard to see how anyone actually manages to build something at the club.
Stability has been good for Arsenal, good for Manchester City, for Aston Villa, for Liverpool and for Newcastle.
Of course you need the right person in the job at the right time and maybe Amorim wasn’t that. But, even if things weren’t shifting as quickly as the club would have wanted, they did seem to be through the worst of it and moving in the right direction for the first time in a long time.
Good luck to whoever comes in next. They’ve a hell of a job on their hands.
KSE does not quickly fire coaches. They give time. The termination of Malone at the nuggets last year was after several successful years. That dispute was between the gm and the hc.
I must have missed Fulham's consecutive top 4 finishes 😄