Manchester United take on Tottenham in the Europa League final on Wednesday night, with boss Ruben Amorim admitting they are playing for more than just a trophy when they meet in Bilbao
Ruben Amorim knows Manchester United are playing for more than Europa League glory tonight when they face Tottenham. United have endured a season of turmoil on and off the pitch this season, losing 18 games in the Premier League to find themselves down in 16th place in the table.
Off the pitch, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ruthless cost-cutting has continued, with up to 250 more jobs to go, on top of the 200 redundancies at United last year, as part of the drive to make the club sustainable.
Failure to beat Spurs tonight and secure Champions League football for next season would see United miss out on around £100million in revenue and could lead to further job losses as a result.
Against that backdrop, United boss Amorim knows there is more at stake for him and his players in Bilbao than personal glory on the pitch.
Amorim said: “I'm always playing for more than myself. I'm coaching for my players, for my staff, and especially for our fans
“We are doing things [at United] that we need to do. For example, I came from the club that, in order to survive and to maintain players, you need to be in Champions League. This is not the case.
“Our club can have revenues without the Champions League. It's a big club, it's a massive club, with a lot of fans around the world. It's a big brand, so we just need to be focused and do the things in the right way.”
“We need to be excited and confident [for the final] but we already know the problems. There's a lot of things that we need to change in our club. The way we do everything during the week in Carrington, the recruitment, the academy, I think we need to improve. So it's hard to point at one thing and say that it will be be solved by winning a cup.
“I will say it again - for me we have bigger things to deal with than that, to put this club back at the top. The final is important for us, for our fans, because that feeling of winning can help us to have the strength to do every job that we have to do. So we have a lot to do in our club, not just winning here.
"But winning will be massive for us and our fans.”