THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART

What a difference a day makes. While yesterday’s Football Daily teased the tantalising possibility that Ruben Amorim might reject the coquettish advances of Big Sir Jim, Call Me Dave and assorted other members of the Ineos Brains Trust, this morning it was revealed that the Sporting manager will indeed succeed Erik ten Hag as Manchester United, albeit at a time of his current club’s choosing. Amorim is set to parachute into Old Trafford during the next interlull, which begins on 11 November and it is to be hoped some club liaison officer is on hand to greet him at the airport and pin a poppy to his lapel for fear he causes immediate offence and has to face accusations of forgetting to remember.

Having agreed to pay the £8.3m release fee for the 39-year-old, United are also ponying up the thick end of another £1m and will presumably have to shell out even more to enlist the assorted assistants he hopes to have seated alongside him in the dugout conducting the important business of organising pre-match shuttle-runs, chewing gum intently, badgering the fourth official and showing substitutes stuff on iPads. In the meantime, Ruud van Nistelrooy will continue in his role as caretaker manager for United’s next three games – against Chelsea on Sunday, Paok on Thursday and Leicester on 10 November – before handing over the reins ahead of their trip to Ipswich on 24 November.

In charge of Sporting for another three matches, one of which is against Estrela da Amadora on Friday night, Amorim was asked about his new gig by reporters in Lisbon. “I’ll leave it until the end of the game,” he said, remaining commendably coy. “I’ll talk about all these issues. Everything will be clearer. Talking now is just another destabilisation for the squad.”

Speaking of squad destabilisation, a different manager of a big football club in Manchester could be heard bemoaning the knack crisis that has befallen his squad ahead of a run of games that includes, as luck would have it, next week’s Bigger Cup clash with Sporting in Portugal.

While Pep Guardiola did not seem particularly fussed by his Manchester City side’s white-knuckle exit from Fizzy Cup at the hands of Tottenham last night, he was noticeably concerned by the knack incurred by Manuel Akanji, Rúben Dias and Savinho, three members of his already depleted squad. “We have 13 players, we are in real difficulties,” he said. “The guys that play, they finish most of them with problems and we’ll see how they recover. I think we are in trouble, because in nine years we’ve never been in the situation with so many injuries. The players make a step forward, more together than ever, and we will try to do this week in this short time of recovery.” That screeching sound you can hear is an orchestra of teeny-weeny violins.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

24 May 2024: “There is a beginning and an end to everything. It is only fair: to close the circle in this way, where I had started, is something I dreamed of and the dream was wonderful” – Claudio Ranieri retires after seeing his career out with Cagliari.

31 Oct 2024: “I confess that I want to put myself back on the line even though I have already said ‘no’ to more than one offer. Let’s see if a call comes from a national team” – Ranieri does a Warnock.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

“I, along with 1,056 others, am sure that Abdul Qadir (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) was a leg spinner” – Lee Pettifer (and 1,056 others).

“Shouldn’t the headline (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) be ‘Hard Cash beats bad Czech’?” – Douglas Thomson (and 1,056 others).

“I enjoyed a headline from Kevin Keegan’s glory days as England manager so much I cut it out and pinned it to my office desk divider: ‘Keegan knows what he’s doing’” – Michael Keegan.

Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Michael Keegan, who lands a Football Weekly scarf. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.

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