Sporting CP president Frederico Varandas has framed the mounting interest around the club’s manager Ruben Amorim as a positive.
Manchester City have been strongly linked with the highly rated head coach as a candidate in the eventuality that Pep Guardiola does not extend his contract beyond this season. Manchester United have also reportedly made contact with Amorim as part of their sniffing around alternatives to the perennially under-pressure Erik ten Hag.
Rather than angered by the outside interest, Varandas has presented rumours as a compliment.
“When am I going to lose Ruben Amorim?” the president asked himself in an interview with A Bola in October. “I’ve been hearing this question for over four years, which for me, and I think this should make all Sporting fans and even the entire media proud. It’s questioning how one of the best coaches in the world has been at Sporting for five years, that’s what’s fantastic.”
While Amorim’s future is uncertain, Sporting have lost their transfer specialist Hugo Viana to City. The club’s new director of football will replace the revered Txiki Begiristain at the end of the season, sparking doubt over Guardiola’s future given his longstanding relationship with his former Barcelona teammate.
“Our role as administrators is to be living in the future and when I am living in the future, I have been prepared for several years so that, if that piece comes out, what piece will come in,” Varandas explained. “Today, the three of us [Varandas, Viana and Amorim] have a friendly relationship.
“Today, it is a fact that Ruben Amorim has a contract with Sporting until 2026. And today, it is a fact that Hugo Viana will be the sporting director of Manchester City next year.”
Sporting triggered the €20m (£16.7m) release clause in Amorim’s contract at Braga to bring the young tactician to Lisbon in 2020. At the end of his first full season, Amorim won the club’s first top-flight league title since 2002, when Cristiano Ronaldo was on the cusp of breaking through.
Amorim achieved this impressive feat – and steered the club to another league title last season – despite his captain, Bruno Fernandes, being sold to Manchester United. The skipper delivered a glowing review of his former coach earlier this month and backed him to succeed if he were to come to England.
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