Jim Ratcliffe tells Ruben Amorim what he must do next season to avoid Man Utd sack

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has told Ruben Amorim where he wants Manchester United to finish next season after the head coach suggested he could resign.

United are already condemned to their worst Premier League season in history with the club dropping to 16th in the table after a 2-0 home defeat to West Ham on Sunday.

With two games left, the Red Devils can finish no higher than 13th and with a maximum 45 points – 13 less then their record lowest tally set in 2021/22.

Remarkably, the club have gone backwards since the sacking of Erik ten Hag and subsequent appointment of Amorim in November, with the Portuguese winning just six of his 25 league matches.

There is one bit of good news: United have reached the final of the Europa League where they’ll face Tottenham – themselves 17th in the table.

Victory would mean a trophy and qualification for next season’s Champions League, but following the loss to West Ham, Amorim shockingly suggested he could leave Old Trafford if results did not improve.

‘I don’t want to talk about players. I’m talking about myself, the culture in the club, the culture in the team,’ the 40-year-old said in his post-match press conference.

‘I have that feeling, we need to change that and we need to be really strong in the summer and be brave because we will not have the next season like this.

‘If we start like this, or if the feeling is still here, we should give the space to different persons.’

Former United boss Jose Mourinho is the favourite to replace Amorim should he indeed walkaway but there is no indication from Ratcliffe and co. that they want to sack him.

In fact, the Manchester Evening News reports that United’s owners have already set out their main target for the 2025/26 season, believing a top-six finish would be an ‘acceptable aim’.

While such a finish may not guarantee Champions League qualification, it’s the logical next step in such a massive rebuild and project, but not an easy one to achieve now that Aston Villa, Newcastle and even Nottingham Forest are threatening the ‘big-six’ clubs.

Meanwhile, Amorim’s comments post-West Ham did not go down well withformer Liverpool star Danny Murphy, who told Match of the Day 2: ‘I get a little bit of confused with some of Amorim’s interviews and the amount of negativity I am hearing coming from him.

‘I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt sometimes because certain phrases and the way you say things and string sentences together when new to the country, not new to the language, but talking more of that language.

‘But I am not a big fan of a manager continually and consistently talking negatively about how bad things are, how bad it is and how we’re the worst United team in the Premier League [era].

‘I would like to hear more solution-based answers and a bit more positivity moving forward and thinking forward.’

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