Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes makes surprise Ruben Amorim claim

Bruno Fernandes believes Manchester United were ‘building something’ under Ruben Amorim before ‘all of a sudden’ the club ‘decided we need a change’.

Amorim lost his job at Old Trafford in early January after 14 months in charge of the Premier League giants.

Manchester United finished just 15th last season and failed to save a miserable campaign in Europe as they lost to Tottenham in the Europa League final.

The Red Devils certainly improved in the first-half of this season, with United sixth in the Premier League at the time of Amorim’s sacking.

But there were also several concerning results, with the Manchester club losing to Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup and also going out of the FA Cup at the earliest possible opportunity.

Manchester United have improved drastically since club legend Michael Carrick was appointed caretaker manager, climbing to third in the Premier League, just six points behind Manchester City.

But captain Fernandes has still appeared to question the decision to sack Amorim, insisting his fellow Portuguese was ‘building something’ before his exit.

Asked what it will take for Manchester United to challenge for major trophies once again, Fernandes told The Times: ‘Difficult to say because we changed manager.

‘We were building something [under Ruben Amorim] and all of a sudden the club decided we need to change.

‘And then with Michael [Carrick] we have this last spell where we’ve been great until now, with the opportunity of the Champions League next season.

‘If we finish the way we want to finish, it’s going to look very good, but it’s still not the picture we want. 

‘[Can we] be the team we’ve been in this spell, but for a full season? Because anyone can be good in spells. Being good in the whole season is much more difficult.

‘That’s something we haven’t done since I’m here. We need that consistency. In a full league, every point matters. Every small detail will make a difference.’

Amorim was clearly popular with some members of the Manchester United squad, with former captain Harry Maguire recently tipping the 41-year-old to have an ‘amazing career’ going forwards.

‘I think Ruben was really good with me. I pretty much played every game under Ruben when I was fit,’ Maguire, who has signed a contract extension at Old Trafford, told The Mirror.

‘I don’t really have much bad to say about Ruben. I really like Ruben, I think he’s got great ideas. The ideas just didn’t work at Manchester United.

‘I do believe he’ll go on and have an amazing career, and his next club he’ll probably go and win many, many football matches.

‘It just didn’t click or work and I think us as players have got to take a lot of responsibility for that as well.

‘But I think he has led the club in a direction, and I do think he deserves a lot of credit for that, where he’s built a good, solid squad and I do believe that he deserves credit for that.

‘I spoke to him when he left. He wished us all the best. I’m sure he would have been upset, but I know he’s still really, really young and I’m sure he’s going to go on to great things in management.’

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