Ruben Amorim has received a recommendation from former Manchester United striker Louis Saha to bring in club legend Roy Keane into his coaching team.
The former Sporting Lisbon coach arrived at Carrington yesterday and is expected to hit the grass in the coming days when is work visa his officially approved.
The 39-year-old already made a big decision on his first day in the job, with Ruud van Nistelrooy leaving the club despite a successful stint as interim manager following Erik ten Hag’s sacking.
And Amorim is keen to bring many of his backroom staff from Sporting with him to the Premier League, with Carlos Fernandes, Adélio Candido, Paulo Barreira, Emanuel Ferro, and Jorge Vital all expected to be confirmed in the coming days.
Fernandes, Candido and Ferro are part of Amorim’s first-team coaching set-up with Vital a goalkeeping coach. Barreira meanwhile is a sporting scientist.
However, not everyone is convinced that Amorim is assembling the best team to help with his overhaul at United.
Rio Ferdinand suggested that Amorim may have made a mistake by not keeping Van Nistelrooy at the club following his successful audition in the past few weeks.
And his former teammate Saha agrees that Amorim could do with the help of a familiar face in his early days but said the Portuguese coach should instead look to hire former Red Devils captain Keane.
‘If Roy Keane was brought into Ruben Amorim’s coaching staff he would have a huge impact thanks to his understanding of the game in midfield as well as the competitiveness that you need to have at Manchester United,’ he told BoyleSports, who offer the latest Premier League odds.
‘He was a character that imposed himself during his time as a player and was part of the reason that the club was so successful in that period.’
‘He is very tough as a pundit and with the players in the modern game he might not be able to speak in the same way because there are big egos that might not understand his messages. With certain players it just wouldn’t work.
‘But I think that he would be able to adapt, that’s what good players and coaches do.’
Keane, whose last job in coaching with the Republic of Ireland national team ended in 2018, has previously poured cold water on the possibility of a return to his former club.
‘They’re not gonna be asking me,’ he said on The Overlap last month when asked if he would return to United in the wake of Ten Hag’s sacking. They just wouldn’t. They just wouldn’t.’
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