The winners and losers from Ruben Amorim’s Man Utd sacking: Mainoo, Ratcliffe, Solskjaer, Wilcox

Kobbie Mainoo and Dan Ashworth might have celebrated after Ruben Amorim was sacked by Man Utd, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Jason Wilcox are in trouble.

Amorim was finally shown the door after 63 largely forgettable games in charge at Old Trafford, with the beneficiaries and casualties of his demise fairly easy to delineate.

When Amorim referred to Mainoo as “the future of Manchester United” in December, he added that the England international simply “needs to wait for his chance and everything can change in football in two days”.

Mainoo, at a crucial period in his development, had already sat tightly enough for an opportunity which was not forthcoming. Not 18 months have passed since he started a European Championship final , which itself came a few weeks after his match-winning turn in the FA Cup final . Yet only against Grimsby has the 20-year-old been entrusted with longer than 45 minutes in any game this season.

Through such curious treatment Mainoo has kept his counsel – and for one regrettable exception ensured his entourage did the same – with a clean slate post-Amorim surely his reward.

No-one stands to benefit more from the departure of Amorim than the gifted academy graduate whose overdue invite back in from the bitter cold can help address glaring problems in that Manchester United midfield.

It is thought that he could ‘benefit most’ from the interim appointment of Darren Fletcher in what will presumably be a short-term arrangement, with “the future of Manchester United” finally allowed to play a part in the present again.

It is exceptional work that of the ‘hell of a brains trust’ held responsible for appointing Amorim at Manchester United , the only dissenting voice was dispensed with over a year before his concerns over the suitability of the Portuguese were fully realised.

A penny for Ashworth’s thoughts would be a drop in the ocean considering the £4.1m pay-off he landed after serving a longer period of gardening leave at Newcastle than he did actually working in the fabled Old Trafford power structure.

That difference of opinion over whether Amorim was the best possible fit was ultimately his undoing. Ashworth suggested there might be better appointments out there than a tactically obstinate coach whose ideals clashed with the composition of a squad which could hardly afford to have more money spent on it, especially in the middle of a season.

INEOS disagreed, ousted their sporting director, spent around £250m on signings for Amorim and then sacked him while Ashworth was settling into his new role in charge of ‘strategic oversight’ and ‘building long-term systems’ at the FA, where he established his reputation for precisely the sort of structure-led executive vision Manchester United need – the kind they had and ignored.

“The Club” might never have been as thoroughly, fundamentally “known” as by the former player, ambassador, reserve team and first-team striker coach, caretaker and full-time manager who has represented them on the pitch or in the dugout 534 times.

It should be with an acceptance that Rio Ferdinand cannot propose, regardless of results or performances, that Solskjaer is offered a blank contract to fill and sign. And that Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt are legally prevented from referring to the Norwegian only by his first name.

But Manchester United absolutely have to put Ole at the wheel again . If for no other reason than the fact Darren Fletcher is taking his turn, Ruud van Nistelrooy had one last season and Ryan Giggs has to be skipped over, even if doing so is as hard as a totem pole.

It is already shameful that Manchester United are back in the same sort of position Solskjaer inherited seven years ago, so they really might as well make the best of it.

And after 14 months of sacrificing their modesty, pride and dignity at the altar of a stubborn philosophical and tactical egotist, Manchester United probably do need a supporter to stroke their hair, tell them they’re beautiful, wait on them hand and foot and regale them with stories about “Sir Alex” for half a season.

It is objectively hilarious that Solskjaer finds himself as the saviour rushing to help someone he actively knows doesn’t see him in the same way , but also completely fair play because it guarantees someone who has previously only ever managed Molde, Cardiff and Besiktas semi-regular work at Manchester United .

It is almost two years since they sold a 27.7 per cent stake, and with it control over football operations at Manchester United , and it genuinely feels like the Glazers would not have made half as many atrocious decisions .

He got to do the ‘three trophies’ thing again! Genuinely chuffed for him. But slightly worried he didn’t refer to his greatest career achievement of finishing second.

There is an argument to suggest Amorim is better off now than at any previous point over the past year or so.

He has certainly somehow engineered a situation whereby taking Manchester United to 15th, bottling a major final against Spurs and spending hundreds of millions to continue overseeing really quite turgid football has nevertheless not damaged his reputation nearly as much as it should, and that he has been as much a victim of the club’s mess than a culprit.

But this can only have been a chastening experience for a man who was among the world’s most promising, exciting, charismatic and captivating young coaches upon his appointment at 39. When Amorim turns 41 at the end of January it will have been a hell of a paper round.

And consider this list of the roles the permanent post-Ferguson managers sacked by Manchester United took up next:

Real Sociedad (six months later) Netherlands (five years and two months later) Spurs (11 months later) Besiktas (three years and two months later) Bayer Leverkusen (eight months later)

It is bleak reading for a manager who could have had his pick of jobs had he called Omar Berrada’s risible bluff .

Take your pick of damning quote.

For some, it’ll be the one from October when Ratcliffe said “Ruben needs to demonstrate he is a great coach over three years,” before sacking him within three months.

Back then he said “football is not overnight” and that “we have to be patient, we have a long-term plan, it isn’t a light switch and you can’t run a club like Manchester United on knee-jerk reactions”.

Manchester United are fifth in a form table since those comments, which were made when they were 10th.

Others might prefer Ratcliffe’s “best in class, 10 out of 10s” description of those he wanted to put in key executive roles at Old Trafford, which currently include a director of football whose only previous experience in such a job came in a single season in the Championship with Southampton .

In that same interview Ratcliffe did also say that INEOS had “made mistakes in football so I’m really pleased that we made them before we arrived in Manchester United” so it really might be that one.

But there is also an argument for when Ratcliffe said the Manchester United shot-callers would decide “what the style of football is and that will be the Manchester United style of football. And the coach will have to play that style,” before specifically appointing a coach who did not play that style.

Ratcliffe has made an absurd number of gloriously bad calls while sat in the big chair; that he has done so while furiously messaging Wilcox about changing formation and playing Bryan Mbeumo at wing-back makes it no less hilarious.

And to the man himself, who wields an inexplicable degree of power at one of the biggest clubs in world football because billionaire owners see ‘Manchester City’ on someone’s LinkedIn and automatically believe they have found a cheat code everyone else has overlooked.

Wilcox was academy director at the Etihad for six years and director of football for Southampton in the Championship for one, before he was given the keys to the Manchester United clown car and some scribbled directions which read ‘Step 1, spend millions. Step 5, knock everyone off perch’, with the middle pages torn out and eaten by David Gill.

Of course, Wilcox was a player and coach before that. In fact, he referred to himself as “a coach at heart” during a Q&A in September, adding: “That’s a strength in my role now but also causes me a bit of a problem because I always want to interfere in what the managers are doing.”

And while those inside stories on the Portuguese’s demise underline how Wilcox has inherited Ed Woodward’s contacts book and innate control over the narrative – the importance of which should not be overlooked – they also emphasise how inextricably tied he is to Amorim’s appointment, failure and sacking, and how Manchester United picked a 3-4-3 fundamentalist before turning against him for playing too much 3-4-3.

It is one thing backing Russell Martin for a second-tier promotion push and adorning him with a few Premier League loanees and Manchester City academy alumni, and entirely another making decisions designed to help actual Manchester United navigate their way through a crippling decade-long identity crisis to become legitimate elite trophy contenders again.

Wilcox must have discovered that post-haste, not that he will say so publicly. Not that he will say much at all publicly, unless Manchester United are doing vaguely okay .

That was the case around the time of Amorim’s one-year anniversary in charge when, in the midst of a genuinely unprecedented run of three Premier League wins and a draw, Wilcox implored the club to “continue to build the spirit, continue to build on Ruben’s idea. Ruben has got a very clear idea. It’s a lot more flexible, the idea, than what people give it credit for.”

Two months later, Wilcox was one of those who made the decision to sack Amorim in large part because of an inflexibility over his ideas. He will not be able to avoid the axe covered in his own fingerprints forever if the next appointment isn’t a success.

The streak goes on. De Ligt will still never have started consecutive professional club seasons under the same head coach until 2027/28 at the earliest.

To have had 18 different managers at the age of 26, and to have made more than 42 appearances under only one by virtue of having worked with them at two clubs, is remarkable. At this point it’s De Ligt’s responsibility to maintain that until he retires.