Ruben Amorim at Man Utd: Growing tension between head coach and club hierarchy including director of football Jason Wilcox | Football News

There is growing tension between Ruben Amorim and the hierarchy at Manchester United, including director of football Jason Wilcox.

While there is disagreement over their January transfer window strategy, there is a wider disagreement about the team’s tactical approach going forward.

Amorim has been bullish about moving away from his preferred 3-4-3 system this season, which is understood to be at the root of an increasingly strained relationship with his bosses.

When it comes to the transfer window, Amorim wants United to spend to help drive them into the Champions League places, while the club are currently continuing their long-term plan to develop the squad.

As Sky Sports News revealed last week, that includes a priority to sign at least one – maybe two – top central-midfield players in the summer, as well as potentially another winger, striker and centre-back.

From United’s point of view, they are determined to avoid a return to short-term transfer spending and will stick to their long-term financial plan to develop the squad strategically over successive transfer windows.

Sky Sports News has been told that, while United’s bosses are aware of how stretched the squad is right now, the feeling is that it will be considerably eased when three key players – Bryan Mbuemo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui – return from the Africa Cup of Nations over the next fortnight.

Clearly, Amorim is not currently satisfied with the amount of work being done behind the scenes to bring new players in sooner.

It is a common theme at football clubs, especially in January, that managers and head coaches want reinforcements to achieve an objective, while club bosses tend to show more restraint, and it creates tension. However, this does feel somewhat different with Amorim.

His latest outburst, following the draw at Leeds, in which he said he joined United to be their manager, not their head coach, came after two weeks of subtle comments in his media commitments targeted at the club’s hierarchy.

He said on Christmas Eve to play his “perfect 3-4-3, we need to spend a lot of money – I’m starting to understand that is not going to happen”, then a few days later spoke about the importance of finding “middle ground” between himself and Wilcox.

His mood, especially in his pre-match news conference ahead of the Leeds game, was notably different and cold compared to what the weekly media contingent have been used to and that continued in the lead-up to his explosive comments after the 1-1 draw at Elland Road.

Amorim has also made explosive statements before that have thrown his situation at the club into the air, quickly followed by some sort of clarification, blowing over in a week, especially if the next result is positive.

Carragher: Amorim is not good enough to be Manchester United boss

Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher:

“I don’t think he is in any position whatsoever to be questioning the people who appointed him. Because he’s not good enough. He’s not good enough to be Manchester United’s manager. He’s barely competent enough to be a Premier League manager right now.”

On why Amorim is speaking out:

“It can only be two things. It can either be about the January transfer market, that he’s not being backed. Or the people above him are questioning that he’s flip-flopping between systems.

“It started to look like he was getting somewhere with a back four, he went back to a five at the back against Wolves and it was possibly the worst performance from a team we’ve seen against Wolves this season.”

Man Utd’s next five fixtures

• January 7: Burnley (A) – Premier League, kick-off 8.15pm, live on Sky Sports
• January 11: Brighton (H) – FA Cup third round, kick-off 4.30pm
• January 17: Man City (H) – Premier League, kick-off 12.30pm, live on Sky Sports
• January 25: Arsenal (A) – Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm, live on Sky Sports
• February 1: Fulham (H) – Premier League, kick-off 2pm, live on Sky Sports