Chelsea should consider Sporting CP’s Ruben Amorim
Chelsea continues to search for a new manager has unsurprisingly taken long, not particularly because it’s a difficult search, but perhaps because there’s too many brains involved in the decision. So far, the Club has been linked with Julian Nagelsmann, Luis Enrique and Mauricio Pochettino.
This was before Enrique was ruled out of contention by several reliable sources and Nagelsmann himself pulled out of the negotiations. This has led many fans to assume that Pochettino would be crowned the next manager of the west London club. However, there’s another name Boehly and his team should consider, and that is Sporting CP’s manager Ruben Amorim.
He ticks many boxes for the board and probably for the Chelsea fans too, considering the fans’ seeming interest in someone young. Amorin is only three years older than 35-year-old Nagelsmann, and has significantly fewer years of experience, having taken charge of his first top flight team in September 2019.
Chelsea must consider Ruben Amorim for the manager role
He’s a Portuguese manager that started his coaching career at third-tier Portuguese team Casa Pia. Amorim went on to coach another third tier team Sporting Braga B, then was moved up to be head coach of the senior team. He commanded the third highest compensation fee in football history when Sporting CP paid for his services in March 2020.
Amorim brought a progressive style of play every where he went, and at Sporting, he promoted five players from the academy, despite making six new signings in the 2020-21 summer transfer window. This indicates a manager that doesn’t flinch at using players who he thinks are capable, regardless of age or experience in the top flight.
He notably knocked out Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal in 2023 on penalties after drawing the tie 3-3 on aggregate, and in that game he matched Arsenal and gave them a run for their money. Amorim has impressed everywhere he has gone, finishing fourth with Braga despite joining mid-season when they were 8th, and winning Sporting their first league title in 19 years.
Amorim would be an excellent fit because he has previously been at clubs with the added pressure of challenging for the title (not particularly as favourites), and has coped with it. SL Benfica are often favourites for the Primeira Liga and the fact that Sporting had not won it in 19 years at the time he did, shows just how much work the Portuguese club had to do.
The 38-year-old uses a relatively young squad, with the average age of his last fielded starting eleven (January 24, 2023) being 26.6. That starting eleven had 24 year-old Pedro Goncalves, 24-year-old Marcus Edward, 22-year-old Manuel Ugarte and 19-year-old Ousmane Diomande. Three of those players played 90 minutes except Goncalves who played 79 mins and was substituted off due to injury.
The strongest case for Chelsea to go for the Sporting manager is that his teams have improved considerably, especially attacking wise, since the 2020/21 season when he won the league. The Portuguese club created 2.9 big chances per game across 34 matches, scored 65 goals (1.9 goals per game), conceded just 20 goals, and averaged ~58% possession, scoring 85 points.
The following season he came second, but his team created 3.6 big chances per game, scored 73 goals (2.1 goals per game), conceded just 23, and averaged ~60% possession, scoring 85 points again. This season, Amorim’s team is not doing as well defensively, but is averaging 2 goals per game, averaging ~63% possession and creating 3.2 big chances per game. These are superb numbers at the top end of a league table for someone who started top flight management four years ago.
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Amorim is clearly very good with young players and Chelsea has the best academy in the world along with a lot of cherry-picked young players who have been acquired for the senior team. The Portuguese manager would have time but he would also be able to install a style of play that fans have been crying out for probably since as far back as when Carlo Ancelotti was manager in 2010. Yes, these numbers are from the Portuguese league, but Jose Mourinho started there and came straight to west London from there.