Ruben Amorim is going to be given time, a lot of time, to turn things round at Manchester United, says co-owner Jim Ratcliffe.
It has been an extremely difficult time for Amorim since he took over as Red Devils manager nearly a year ago.
The Portuguese left Sporting to take charge at Old Trafford in November last year and, realistically, things could not have gone much worse on the field.
Manchester United finished 15th in the Premier League table last season and failed to qualify for European action for this campaign as they were beaten in the Europa League final by Tottenham.
There was a summer of encouraging action in the transfer market as the Red Devils signed the likes of Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko, but results are yet to improve a great deal.
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A win over Sunderland on Saturday helped things, but only dragged United up to 10th in the table, with 10 points from seven games.
Amorim also suffered a memorable low point in the Carabao Cup, beaten on penalties on a midweek trip to League Two Grimsby Town.
Amorim has obviously not produced the results his bosses had hoped for when they brought him in to replace Erik ten Hag, but Ratcliffe is not panicking.
The INEOS chief is urging patience, pointing to other successful managers who struggled at first, and suggesting Amorim will get as long as three years to prove himself.
‘I remember the clamouring for Alex Ferguson to be fired in his first two years,’ Ratcliffe said on The Times’ The Business podcast.
‘You look at [Mikel] Arteta at Arsenal. He had a miserable time for the first couple of years.
‘We’re results-driven at the end of the day, but we have to be patient and we have to see through the results. I think there’s lots of good things at Manchester United. We have to be patient and we have a long-term plan. It isn’t a light switch.
‘Ruben needs to demonstrate that he’s a great coach over three years.’
Pushed on whether he sees three years as the likely timeframe he will give Amorim to show he can succeed, he said: ‘Yes. That’s where I would be. Three years, because football’s not overnight.’
Another longer term plan for Ratcliffe is working on re-establishing the Manchester United academy as a force, believing that it is not what it once was.
Stephen Torpey has recently been brought in from Brentford to lead that process, which Ratcliffe hopes will be a financial boost.
‘The academy has really slipped at Manchester United,’ he said. ‘You need the academy to be producing talent all the time. It helps you financially.
‘That’s not a light switch. You don’t solve the academy problem overnight. It takes time. We just recruited a new academy director.’