Ruben Amorim has responded to Cristiano Ronaldo's comments about the current state of Manchester United.
The club has struggled badly since the departure of iconic manager Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, when they lost won the Premier League.
Last season was a particularly nadir for Manchester United as they finished in 15th place and lost out to Tottenham in the Europa League final, costing Amorim's side a Champions League place for this season.
Ruben Amorim insists Manchester United are learning from prior mistakes
There have been signs of improvement from United in recent weeks, with ten points delivered from their past four league games to push United up to eighth, just two points behind second-placed Manchester City.
Still, Ronaldo has delivered some fairly measured and reasonable criticism that isn't really anything that everyone else hasn't been saying for over a decade, so naturally that's become headline news because that's just how these things work.
Ronaldo had two spells as a United player, with his most recent coming in 2021-22 but ending unhappily after a fall-out with Erik ten Hag.
In a TV interview, Ronaldo said: "I'm sad because of the club that’s one of the most important clubs in the world, and a club that I still have in my heart because of the obvious reasons.
"You have to follow with the intelligent people, smart people, to create a base for the future as Manchester United [did] so many years ago: Nicky Butt, Gary, Roy Keane, Beckham, they became big players, but they had youth.
"So Manchester United right now, they don't have a structure. I hope that changes in the future, present/future, because the potential of the club, it's amazing. It's one of the most important clubs of the century."
Ronaldo had added of Amorim: "He’s doing his best. What are you going to do? Miracles. Miracles is impossible. They have good players, but they don’t have in mind, some of them, what Manchester United is."
The 40 year old's tepid criticism was met with an equally bland response from Amorim, who last November became the first new managerial appointment of the INEOS regime that arrived at the club in early 2024.
Amorim said at his Thursday afternoon press conference: "Of course, he knows he has huge impact [with] everything he says - but what we need to focus on is in future. We know as a club we made a lot of mistakes in the past. We are trying to change that.
"Let’s not focus on what happened. We need to focus on the future. Let’s focus on the way we are doing things. We are changing a lot of things, the structure, the way we want the players to behave, we are improving. Let’s forget a little bit the past."
