Ruben Amorim says he “feels betrayed” and is “not in a good place mentally at all” after his verbal abuse after Manchester United’s draw with Leeds. According to the body language expert, the Portuguese coach said: “All departments need to do their job: the scouting department, the sporting director. I will do my job for 18 months and then I will take the next step.”
Amorim has expressed frustration at the lack of authority and hinted that his time at Old Trafford will end when his contract expires in the summer of 2027. “I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach of Manchester United. That’s clear. This is going to be the case for 18 months, or until the board decides to replace me. I’m not going to quit. I’m going to do my job until someone else comes here to replace me,” he declared.
Body language expert Darren Staunton, who analyzed Amorim’s press conferences before and after the 1-1 draw at Elland Road, said the 40-year-old was feeling angry and disappointed. It remains to be seen how United executives will react to Amorim’s outburst, but there is no doubt that the risk of him being sacked increases after this. His suggestion was that INEOS broke their promise to him, and selecting him from their player recruitment staff would not have gone down well with the higher-ups.
And Stanton told OLBG: “Ruben Amorim is a very expressive person and it was interesting to watch the press conference unfold. He was asked for answers about transfer and formation issues, but he said he didn’t want to talk about it. As the questioning continued, we saw Amorim showing genuine anger. Amorim’s eyes were piercing and his eyebrows were lowered.”
“It’s a look that says, ‘I said, move on.’ He’s glued to the topic and tired of it. Then we see a sly grin on his face. It’s contempt. This is what we call a two-sided smile. It’s a gaffe of gesture. When we smile on one side of our face, it’s a way of expressing contempt, and in this context we’re effectively saying that the Amorim said everything he wanted to say, and now you’re not listening to me.
“You can see the wrinkles on his forehead. It’s a combination of frustration, anger, and some kind of inner turmoil about his situation. He’s never a happy person. He’s never in a good place emotionally.”
Stanton added that Amorim has created an atmosphere of feeling “betrayed” at United. He added: “The journalist’s series of questions and Mr. Amorim’s comments at the end of the exchange were excellent. To call the journalist very smart is to admit that the questions were too close for comfort.”
“They were spot on, they hit a nerve, and it was the wrong question to ask now to find out how Amorim feels. But Amorim does not have equal accountability within his team for this situation. He is like a man who feels he has been forced to cross-examine in court on matters that have nothing to do with him.”
“Amorim seems like a man full of regrets because things haven’t gone his way on the pitch or what he expected from the club when he took over. He’s obviously a competitive guy and I think he’s frustrated and worried that United haven’t progressed further since he joined the club.”
“And now he’s being asked questions about things that he doesn’t want to talk about in the context of a press conference. I think he feels betrayed and misunderstood, but mostly I think it’s a betrayal. I think he feels he was thrown under the bus.”
