Manchester United are without a sporting director after Dan Ashworth had to “go” on Sunday. Reports trickled out that the former sporting director at Newcastle was putting forward “safe” candidates to replace Ten Hag, while Ratcliffe and the rest of the United management wanted someone like Ruben Amorim. The choice fell on the Portuguese. For Ashworth and new Sporting coach Joao Pereira, this was not a success.
Pereira is a household name at Sporting, the former defender has been part of the coaching staff since retiring as a player in 2021. Last season, Pereira had Amorim as his coach.
Amorim was brought to Sporting in 2020, before the coach packed up and traveled to Manchester, he had led Sporting to eight games without defeat. Pereira started well with a 6-0 win over Amrante in the first leg, then everything went straight south.
Sporting still lead the Portuguese league, but Benfica are now only two points behind with one fewer game played. In other words, a completely different situation than with Amorim at the helm.
In the Champions League, there is the same collapse. Amorim left Sporting with a 4-1 win over City, Pereira has led the club to a big loss against Arsenal and a loss this week against Club Brugge.
According to Portuguese Record, Sporting management will sack Pereira if Sporting lose in this weekend’s match against Boavista. The Portuguese media reports club president Frederico Varandas is already in the process of finding a replacement.
