Ruben Amorim told there are Man Utd stars who ‘don’t like him’ as reality is made clear

Ruben Amorim’s first full season in charge of Manchester United has not begun swimmingly, and ex-Red Devils defender Phil Jones admits there will be some players who have not taken to the Portuguese manager

Ex-Manchester United defender Phil Jones admits some Red Devils players may not like head coach Ruben Amorim, but this is the reality at most football clubs. The Portuguese boss has entered his first full season in charge at Old Trafford and was backed to the tune of over £200million this summer.

A promising opening league loss to Arsenal was quickly forgotten after a lacklustre 1-1 draw at Fulham. When Amorim’s side met Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup, a new low was hit – United crashed out on penalties, and calls for the head coach to be axed bellowed.

These were only slightly quelled by a somewhat fortunate 3-2 victory against Burnley last time out.

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The club remains in turmoil, and to make matters worse, former United centre-half Jones, who made over 200 appearances for them, believes that – as is the case for most sides – a selection of Amorim’s cohort are not fond of the manager.

“Do I think there were players at United who didn’t like him? To be honest, that’s probably a ridiculous question because I’d say there are people in the United team now who don’t like the manager,” began Jones, speaking to Ladbrokes at the launch of Ladisfaction.

“But there are probably players at Man City who feel the same way about [Pep] Guardiola; they can’t stand him. There’s people like that in every team.

“These are big groups of players and different personalities, and all of them are competitive, and think they should be playing more than they are.

“That will never, ever change. Even when a manager is flying, there will always be someone going, ‘Well, he’s not playing me, so he’s not good.’ Trust me, I’ve been there myself. I’ve been a young kid moaning about training being rubbish. But in reality, it’s not rubbish; you’re just hurt and you don’t know how to deal with it.

“You have to realise what’s going on, pull yourself out of your a*** and get back to where you need to get back to. Nine times out of ten, that’s what the problem is.

“That comes with experience, though. The more mature I got, the more games I played and the more managers I had, the more of an understanding I had about it all.

“You know, it wasn’t the manager who was the problem, it was me. When I think of some players now, more often than not, they find it very easy to just pass the blame onto the manager.

“The manager wasn’t great, the coaches who took the training session weren’t great. But, really? Was that the case? Were they not great, or were you not great? Which one was it?”

Amorim and United face a stiff task after the early international break, and have to travel to the Etihad to face rivals Manchester City. They then welcome Chelsea to Old Trafford in the second of two crucial fixtures in the tenure of Amorim.

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