The key lesson Ruben Amorim can learn from Mikel Arteta to revive Manchester United

If Arsenal are a reminder of a rare highlight in Ruben Amorim’s troubled time in charge of Manchester United, they also represent a role model. A giant club headed for a historic low, looking for a new identity after the departure of their greatest manager, turned to an inexperienced figure from the Iberian peninsula, a former midfielder fast-tracked to a prominent position as a coach.

Amorim could be forgiven for looking at Mikel Arteta and seeing similarities; perhaps a blueprint, too, even if United are coming up with ever more plans to win the Premier League – while being ever further away from actually doing it – while Arsenal are on course for a bittersweet hat-trick, a trio of runners-up finishes. Frustrating as that could be, it nevertheless looks like progress from United’s vantage point of 14th.

And yet there are ways in which Amorim thinks he cannot simply seek to emulate Arteta. By the end of this season, the Spaniard will be five-and-a-half years into his reign at Arsenal and, unless they triumph in the Champions League, five without a major trophy.

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Perhaps his early FA Cup victory bought Arteta time but Erik ten Hag can testify that silverware alone is not enough for United. If eliminating Arsenal with 10 men in the third round offered Amorim’s United the chance that he, too, could end his debut campaign with Wembley glory, they blew it by exiting the competition to Fulham on penalties.

But Arsenal identified a manager for the long term and backed him: indeed they rebranded him manager after initially appointing a head coach. United can seem in more of a hurry. Amorim looked a futuristic appointment, but was only given a two-and-a-half year contract.

At the time, he said they would know within that period if they wanted him to continue. Now he has started to drop hints about his managerial mortality. He stated after Sunday’s FA Cup penalty shootout defeat to Fulham that United’s goal was to win the Premier League but “maybe it is not with me”. A few days on, he reflected: “I will not have the time Arteta had. I feel that. It’s a different club. So we just need to survive with the players on Sunday and we are doing these games. I think it’s a different club.”

A more intolerant one, perhaps. Amorim had only been at United for a few weeks when sporting director Dan Ashworth was dismissed: hired at great expense, he was fired after five months. Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s co-ownership has shown the billionaire can be impatient and impulsive, wanting success soon, blaming others rather than himself when it doesn’t come and displaying a willingness to sack staff. None of that is necessarily a recipe for longevity.

Which Arsenal are getting. Arteta’s reign has not always proceeded smoothly: a winless run meant Arsenal dropped as low as 15th in December 2020, though they recovered to finish that season eighth. There was no sense of panic when they began the following campaign with three straight defeats, culminating in a 5-0 thrashing at Manchester City. They went on to come fifth, just missing out on Champions League qualification. They topped the Premier League for 248 days the following season, albeit without winning it.

The current campaign prompts questions if Arteta’s Arsenal have already peaked but without capturing the major prizes. There are, though, reasons to think otherwise, that they will come again, and plenty to argue he has reestablished Arsenal as a major force, both in England and Europe.

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There is no doubt he has made Arsenal better whereas, so far anyway, Amorim has made United worse.

A common denominator between the pair is a willingness to be ruthless, exiling big names. Now it is clear that Arsenal have benefited from his decisions to dispense with first Mesut Ozil and then Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, even at considerable financial cost, given their salaries and that they cost the Gunners close on £100m in transfer fees.

Amorim was quick to banish Marcus Rashford, another on a huge wage, from his side; as Rasmus Hojlund has not scored since the Mancunian’s last game for his hometown club, it is harder to argue United are benefiting at the moment. For now, the closer comparison may be with Ten Hag’s treatment of Jadon Sancho, which the Dutchman argued was about standards and the culture of the club but which, while the winger was by no means blameless, seemed self-defeating.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Amorim admires Arteta’s show of strength when he removed the superstars and recalibrated his side around hard-working younger players. “I think in that aspect the way Arteta dealt with that is an inspiration for everybody but I will not have the time like Arteta had,” he said.

It was Aubameyang who won Arteta his FA Cup. It came, Amorim may note, playing 3-4-3. But the Spaniard has since moved away from the formation, seeing more scope to attack in a 4-3-3. If Arteta was unbending in his treatment of top earners, he was more flexible with his tactics. There could be a lesson for Amorim there, if he is willing to learn it.