Newly named Manchester United manager Rúben Amorim has confessed that he could have very well ended up at Man City instead of the Theatre of Dreams in a recent interview.
The Portuguese head coach, who is set to take over from United legend and interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy who stood in following Erik ten Hag’s sacking last month, has been admired by many clubs around Europe – most notably the higher-ups at the City Football Group (CFG).
With Pep Guardiola’s contract set to run out next summer and still no indication that he will be signing a new deal, CFG has been looking around for a potential successor and given his impressive start to life as a manager, Amorim has been considered as a strong candidate for a while.
Moreover, since his soon-to-be previous club’s sporting director Hugo Viana is set to replace Txiki Begiristain at City come the end of the season, it was thought Amorim was even more likely to follow suit and now the 39-year-old has admitted that it was an option he considered at point.
🚨🎥 – Ruben Amorim on Hugo Viana joining Man City:
"I chose United.
"Manchester United is MY CLUB, Manchester City is his club. It's going to be fun, and I hope to help United improve."
Speaking to inews.co.uk in the pre-match press conference ahead of his penultimate game in charge of Sporting as they rather fittingly prepare to face Man City in the Champions League, the former midfielder clarified that while the possibility had occurred to him, ultimately, his decision was clear.
“Obviously, it’s something which crossed my mind but I never had any doubts. My decision has been made, that’s the club I want to work for, the context I want to be in, and where I want to continue my career […] When I decided on the club, I didn’t want anything else.
“It is a decision I thought about but was not undecided about it. I wanted Manchester United and that’s what I did.” That being said, it’s no secret that interest from the likes of Liverpool, West Ham and obviously City has been expressed in recent seasons.
Despite asking to see out the current campaign, United also made it clear they wanted to secure his services as soon as possible, with Amorim describing the offer as a “now or never” opportunity.
Viana, meanwhile – the 41-year-old sporting director and fellow compatriot with over 300 club appearances as a player – was described as City’s “top target” heading into the New Year by Guardiola himself, insisting that both he and Amorim had impressed him on a coaching and recruitment level.
As seen above, he also reiterated the conviction behind choosing the Red half of the city in a subsequent chat with TNT Sports. You can see his full interview, in which he confesses he “will be friends until the end” but that both their focuses will be to simply improve their respective teams, down below:
Amorim wished his friend nothing but the best at Man City but insists he must follow his ‘own path’.
Amorim’s record in Europe is one of the marks that has been held against his record in weighing up whether he’s the right appointment for Man United but, nevertheless, he takes on who he calls “the best coach and team in the world” on Wednesday night.
This is Man City and Sporting’s first meeting since 2022 when Guardiola‘s last visit to Lisbon’s José Alvalade Stadium saw his side deliver a 5-0 thrashing over Leões and Amorim was two years into the job.
It will also be his final game at the club’s home ground before his very last game in charge of the Liga Portugal title holders against his former employers, SC Braga, ironically, on Sunday. His first official day in charge of Man United will be Monday, 11 November.
Safe to say if he manages to get a result against Pep and the current Premier League champions it will not only put him in good stead with the Old Trafford faithful but ramp up expectations right from the off. All eyes will be on this game and many will no doubt already be questioning if he chose the right colour.
Featured Images — The Manc Group/Agencia LUSA (via WikiCommons)/TNT Sports (via YouTube)
Sport
Pep Guardiola hints at when Manchester City fans can expect to see their latest arrival
Danny Jones
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given supporters a rough timeline as to when they can expect to see their new signing, or at least their latest arrival, make his first appearance.
The Blues wrapped up the January transfer window with four major signings: their new attacking number seven, Omar Marmoush (who has already bagged a hattrick on his home debut) promising defensive duo, Abdukodir Khusanov and Brazilian Vitor Reis, as well as their ‘mini-Rodri’, Nico Gonzalez.
However, the club has had another late arrival who was technically signed back at the start of last year but who has spent for the last 12 months or so loaned back to his previous parent club, River Plate in Argentina, waiting to make the move over to the Etihad Stadium – and now he’s here in Manchester.
Speaking on his touchdown in 0161, Pep said Claudio Echeverri won’t be thrown into first-team action straight away but did give a rough estimate as to when City fans could expect him to get involved. You can see him discussing the integration plan in his post-match press conference following the Spurs win.
The mention was only brief but there’s still plenty of reason for Man City fans to be excited by the late January signing.
“Yeah, he [Claudio Echeverri] is going to start to train and mainly will be for the end of the season, maybe the [Club] World Cup and as soon as possible [that] he arrives he can adapt quick for the future.”
As mentioned, the 19-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder from Resistencia officially put pen to paper with CFG back in January 2024 and was quickly dubbed ‘the next Messi’.
Now, although the football world is often quick to jump the gun with these things and he isn’t the first and certainly won’t be last to be slapped with this premature title, he’s done more to back up these claims since then than he has rubbish them.
Starring at the 2025 Under-20 South American Championships, netting six goals in nine games to finish the tournament as the second highest scorer thanks to notable braces against Brazil and Uruguay as the young Argentine’s finished as runners up.
He also notched 48 senior appearances for River Plate thus far, netting four goals and grabbing eight assists in that time, not to mention having already captained his national team at the 2023 Under 17s World Cup, where he scored another five.
Safe to say there’s plenty of talent to be tapped in this lad.
Once again, Echeverri won’t go straight into the senior set-up for a little while yet, barring a major injury crisis, but he’ll be a more than exciting addition to the City Football Academy and for future first-team lineups for years to come.
Who knows, maybe he’ll be included in an FA Cup matchday squad? Nevertheless, you can expect him to not just come of the bench but hopefully show what he can do at the Club World Cup this summer.
City‘s first fixture as reigning champions of the competition will be against Moroccan side Wydad AC on 18 June 2025.
You can watch Echeverri’s first full interview as a Man City player down below:
The new Man City signing is excited to be finally be part of the club 13 months on from agreeing his contract.
‘Nothing is eternal’: Is Pep Guardiola hinting at the end of Manchester City’s supremacy?
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola looks to have suggested that more than a decade of Manchester City’s supremacy and Premier League dominance at the very least might be coming to an end.
Speaking in his post-match press interviews after City were knocked out of the Champions League by serial European Cup winners Real Madrid, Guardiola cut a somewhat more deflated figure than usual following the 3-1 defeat.
A Kylian Mbappe hattrick which was closed out within an hour of play was enough to stretch the aggregate score to 6-3 over the two legs and Madrid doubling their lead across the tie proved yet again why, not unlike City domestically over the last decade, they’re the kings of the continental competition.
In contrast, however, Pep seemed to accept the loss much more easily than perhaps we’ve seen in the past and rather than appearing familiarly frustrated or defiant in the press conference; instead, he seemed rather reflective, responding to one reporter: “Nothing is eternal”.
🗣️ "Nothing is eternal" – Pep Guardiola.
🔵 Subscribe to our Manchester City page on BBC Sounds for the latest interviews. #MCFC#bbcfootball
Insisting that they have to decide whether a significant rebuild is needed to keep competing at the very top level consistently as they have done since the 54-year-old arrived back in 2016, he argued that it is only with that they’ll be able to determine what comes next.
As for the result itself, he made no bones about Carlo Ancelotti’s side having “deserved it”, stating simply that “the best team won” and that fans and players alike have to “accept the reality: they were better.”
Having been a familiar foe for Pep long before he arrived in Manchester, both at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – not to mention City having faced Los Blancos a dozen times before Tuesday night since 2012 – there have been less surprising outcomes for supporters to come to terms with.
“With time, the club and everyone is going to accept what it is but for now we have 30/40 games for the Premier League next season to try and be here [in the Champions League] and to improve. Nothing is eternal”, said the Catalan coaching genius.
On the other hand, he also went on to add that it was merely a reflection on the night itself and not what his team have achieved in recent years.
He went on to remark that “when we were playing outstanding it hurt more” to be knocked out of the UCL when he felt they deserved to stay in it, but still insisted: “We have been unbelievable and we have to try step by step to get better from today.” Tonight just wasn’t the night.
Who knows? Perhaps it was just some more melodrama from a manager with an undeniable flare for pageantry and playing into/in the face of narratives when he doesn’t come out on top – which hasn’t happened all that often until their dip in form this season.
Plus, there’s certainly still plenty for him and the fans to be positive about; not only has the arrival of their ‘Egyptian Prince’ and the media’s Mo Salah successor, Omar Marmoush, got plenty of people excited – especially after that first-half hattrick against Newcastle – but so too have the other January signings.
In fact, for all of his downplaying in this particular presser (which you can hear in full HERE), it felt like there were only upsides after their victory over Newcastle, even going so far as to dub new signing Nico Gonzalez a ‘mini-Rodri‘.
You can watch the highlights from the game down below:
Pep is right, nothing is eternal – but sometimes you just come up against talents like Mbappe and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
Danny Jones -
5th November 2024 
