Manchester United: Ruben Amorim calls for unity but huge challenges ahead for divided club

Amorim may be waiting a long time if he wants the section of support who despise the Glazer family and are now starting to assess Sir Jim Ratcliffe in a similarly negative light to put on a unified front.

Then there are the fans who sit in front of the directors’ box, many of whom have had the same seat for decades, who are now being moved out to make way for a corporate hospitality area. And those whose concessions are being reduced. And the threats of season tickets being taken away from fans who don’t use them often enough.

With a second round of redundancies in process, far from being optimistic about the future, Amorim is presiding over a club that is really unhappy just now.

Issues around the way United are run came in a later answer.

Before Amorim spoke on the pitch, Victor Lindelof, goalscorer Christian Eriksen and veteran defender Jonny Evans were called forward individually to take the acclaim of supporters as it was confirmed they would be leaving the club when their contracts expire on 30 June.

This is the start of what is expected to be a huge churn of players before the transfer window closes on 1 September. Yet Amorim had to caution against this.

Premier League regulations mean clubs are restricted to three-year losses of £105m. United’s actual losses are far more, so it is not clear what they have been allowed to claim back as legitimate expense and therefore how close they are to the limit.

But, while strong rumours Wolves forward Matheus Cunha is set to complete a £62.5m switch this summer have not been denied by United officials, Amorim says the club cannot just spend what they want.

“It is hard to talk about that,” he said.

“Of course we will have changes, you saw today three players are leaving. But we have fair play rules and we are limited.”

United did end the season with their first home win since February and one of their best performances.

Yet, a familiar flaw was evident.

Amorim has complained about the lack of goal threat from his team.

Today they had 25 shots in total, 10 on target. They played against 10 men for half of the game. Yet they didn’t score until the 76th minute and didn’t put the game to bed until Eriksen converted his penalty.

No wonder Amorim kicked out at a bottle of water in frustration when Casemiro’s second-half shot flicked against the outside of a post.

In addition to Amorim’s speech, United’s post-match lap of appreciation was also notable for the way Alejandro Garnacho hung back to take the applause of supporters, standing for a few moments in front of the Stretford End with his wife, who had posted on Instagram before the match that it was “the last game”.

Garnacho was not included in Amorim’s matchday squad and is understood to have been told he can find a new club this summer.

Napoli and Chelsea were interested in signing the Argentina forward in the winter window but no deal materialised.

Amorim opted not to expand on the situation, although he admitted he was not certain what would happen with the 20-year-old.

“Garnacho is a Manchester United player who was not in the squad today,” he said.

“I have no news that will change today and I don’t know what is going to happen in the future.”