Manchester United are already “finalizing a deal” for Ruben Amorim to become their new head coach after Erik ten Hag was given his marching orders on Monday.

Heavily linked with Liverpool and Chelsea this summer before making the ‘mistake’ of meeting West Ham, Amorim looks set to realize his Premier League destiny by accepting the vacant job at Old Trafford after being somehow ‘convinced’ to believe Manchester City are a ‘fading force’.

Regardless, he has work to do and could do worse than bring a few of his Sporting players with him in a bid to repair a broken club. We have selected five.

Goncalo Inácio
Manchester United now have six senior centre-backs following the summer arrivals of Leny Yoro and Matthijs de Ligt and we are not convinced that any of them are fit to fulfill their role. It’s not yet clear how much of their failures are down to Ten Hag, and it would be particularly unfair to write off Yoro, but Inacio could provide a classy partner for the teenager at the heart of United’s defence.

Inacio has been on Premier League radars for almost two years – Newcastle were first linked in May 2022 – because a) he’s a very good footballer and b) left-footed centre-backs are a relatively rare breed.

The 23-year-old young man would have been Arne Slot’s ‘top priority’ for Liverpool this summer having already been considered to replace Virgil van Dijk the previous summerbut FSG balked at Sporting’s £51m asking price. That’s probably not a problem for INEOS, who paid the same amount for a midfielder they chased all summer to sit on the bench.

Morten Hjulmand
“I think he has the qualities to play for the top six or seven clubs in the English league. His character, his leadership, his personality, his communication are not very common in today’s football. It reminds me of the defensive midfielders of the past, who controlled the whole match, who led the teams. You don’t see many of them these days. This is something rare in Hjulmand.

Brian Riemer, Denmark’s new head coach, is convinced by Hjulmand and sees Manchester United as one of the clubs that would benefit most from the midfielder, who combines hard tackling with vision and quality on the ball, as well as ‘a fierce talent. shot – as England found out at Euro 2024.

United were linked when Sir Jim Ratcliffe first took the helm but were put off by the £69million price tag, which seemed very high at the time, but not so much now as the great and good across Europe keep their eyes on the 25-year-old, who would probably enjoy the company of his compatriots Rasmus Hojlund and Christian Eriksen at Old Trafford as well as his current manager.

Pedro Gonçalves
You can be forgiven for forgetting (or not knowing) Pedro Goncalves’ impact on English football, given that his senior experience with Wolves consisted of a 28-minute appearance in a 2-0 win in the Carabao Cup against Sheffield Wednesday in September 2018. Nuno Espirito Santo dropped a noise.

Famalicao bought him for £1m in the summer of 2019 before being sold to Sporting for £11.5m a year later and he is now linked with a £70m return in England thanks to 81 goals and 56 assists in 187 appearances. for the Portuguese giants. Oh, Nuno.

Described as “Bruno Fernandes, but more of a goal threat” (which doesn’t take long *snort snort*), Goncalves was first linked with United in March 2021 as an alternative to Jadon Sancho, and could now be an excellent replacement for the man on loan at Chelsea.

Geovany Quenda
In a slightly odd aside to questions about his own links to Manchester United, Amorim was also asked on Monday about the Red Devils’ supposed interest in Quenda, who broke into the first team this season as a winger left-footed right, which United could really do with.

“I didn’t know about United’s interest, if any. Quenda is still very young, he doesn’t play much and it’s good that he keeps his feet on the ground. The price does not depend on me, but on the president. I will not comment on my future.

No dice in the journalist’s somewhat optimistic attempt to land a juicy ‘Amorim wants Man Utd job and will ask Ratcliffe to sign teenager from Sporting’ headline, but oh well.

Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain are all reportedly keeping tabs on the 17-year-old, so he must be fine, as his rumored £83m release clause also suggests.

Viktor Gyokeres
It will never be funny that Everton missed out on Gyokeres because they refused to pay £20m instead of £17m plus £3m in add-ons. Brighton will also have themselves to blame, having let a player who scored 57 goals and 19 assists in 64 games for Sporting and is now set for an £85 million move join Coventry for £1 million just over three years ago.

There appears to be quite a battle for Gyokeres as Manchester City view him as a replacement for Erling Haaland while Arsenal have him at the top of their suitable goalscorer shortlist. But Amorim would give Manchester United a big advantage given the striker’s agent has said that his client joined Sporting “precisely because of Ruben” and there is no doubt that their admiration will have increased as a result of their time together, in what has been a hugely beneficial relationship for both of them.

Rasmus Hojlund has yet to deliver and may never be the goalscorer United need; there are even more doubts about Joshua Zirkzee. Gyokeres is as close to a sure thing as there is in the striker market right now.