Ruben Amorim on 'huge' opportunity for Manchester United

Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim has said that, while nothing can save their season, the Europa League has the opportunity to be 'huge' for the club.

While Manchester United fans have endured a number of disappointing seasons in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era - certainly compared to the highs they had been used to - finishing eighth last season under Erik ten Hag and finishing seventh under David Moyes to name two, this has been by some distance United's worst Premier League campaign.

The Red Devils have already lost 15 games this term and still have four more to play; the last time they lost more than 15 was in the 1989/90 season, when they lost 16 and the FA Cup was believed to have saved Ferguson's skin.

While there's no real pressure on Amorim to get immediate results, the lack of European football would see his rebuilding task made that much harder.

Although the Portuguese recently declared that players will always want to play for Manchester United, it is undoubtedly harder to attract the required calibre of players without European competition. On top of that, United have only played in the UEFA Champions League in three of the last six campaigns and have not got past the last 16 in that time.

While the FA Cup win of last season got them into the Europa League, it was one bright spot at the end of a miserable season; Amorim admits that nothing can save the season, but that qualifying for the UEFA Champions League would make a big difference to the club.

"Nothing is going to save our season," said Amorim in his pre-match press conference. "But this can be huge, winning a trophy. Being in the Champions League could change a lot of things in our club this summer."

The fact that Tottenham and Manchester United remain in the hunt for UEFA Champions League qualification despite finishing closer to the relegation zone than the European spots has brought the rule into focus whereby the Europa League winner will qualify for Europe's premier competition, and Amorim admits he understands why people believe it's unfair.

"I think it is the rules, it is hard to talk about that," said Amorim. "You could see it is not fair because the best teams, the champions, should be in the Champions League. But you have this competition to give a value to it. It is like in our league where you win the cup and you go to the Europa League."

Liam Williams

• Manchester United F.C.
• Europa League
• European Football
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