Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim insists he did not have discussions with Manchester City regarding taking over from Pep Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium before deciding to join Old Trafford.
As Amorim prepares for his maiden Manchester derby on Sunday, his potential connection to City before his United tenure has become a discussion point.
United brought the highly respected Amorim from Sporting Lisbon in November after parting ways with Erik ten Hag.
Amorim’s name had surfaced as a possible replacement for Guardiola when City revealed that Sporting’s director of football, Hugo Viana, would succeed Txiki Begiristain at the end of the season.
Guardiola ended the speculation surrounding his future by signing a new two-year contract shortly after Amorim settled in Manchester.
Amorim responded to the media when asked if he ever discussed joining City: “Never. I never spoke to them; this was my only option.
“When Manchester United approached me, I had no second thoughts because I had already considered it a possibility.
“There was nothing regarding Manchester City or Hugo Viana.”
Amorim’s team halted a streak of two consecutive losses with a 2-1 win against Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League on Thursday.
However, United has secured only three victories in Amorim’s six matches at the helm and currently finds itself in 13th place, with recent defeats to Arsenal and Nottingham Forest highlighting the extent of the rebuilding task ahead.
Remarkably, for the first time in several years, City enters the derby grappling with more challenges than United, following a poor run of just one victory in their last ten matches across all competitions.
