Diogo Dalot has recounted a moment with Cristiano Ronaldo that left United supporters puzzling over timing and target. In a piece for The Players’ Tribune Dalot wrote: “That season with Cristiano was when I really started to grow as a player and as a person. I lost count of the number of predictions he got right, because he knows so well what it takes to go to the top.

“If anyone skipped a set in the gym, he would notice. We had a striker here who did really well for us in his first season, but Cristiano said, ‘He’s not gonna make it here.’

“I said, ‘Cris, he scored two goals today!’ He said, ‘Yeah, but he didn’t have the fire to go for the third.’”

Dalot’s anecdote prompted a wave of fan investigation. Supporters returned to the 2021–22 campaign to see which player matched the description. The only United player besides Ronaldo to score a brace in that first campaign back was Bruno Fernandes, but Fernandes is an attacking midfielder, not a striker, and he remains at the club. The midfielder is entering his seventh season with the club and was crowned FWA and Premier League Player of the Season.

That apparent mismatch has focused attention on the subsequent campaign. In 2022–23, before Ronaldo departed to join Al Nassr in December, both Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford registered two goals within the opening months and later left the club. Martial’s spell at Old Trafford included seven years, 79 goals in 269 appearances and five trophies, among them the 2016–17 Europa League. By the time Ronaldo returned, Martial had struggled for form, was loaned to Sevilla in 2021–22 and scored nine goals when he returned in 2022–23.

Rashford’s record stands at 138 goals in 426 appearances. He managed five goals in Ronaldo’s first season back, recovered in 2022–23, but endured difficult subsequent seasons before moving first to Aston Villa and then to Barcelona on loan, the latter of which where he hopes to stay.

Ruben Amorim’s representatives have moved to close down speculation over his next job by confirming he will not return to a Portuguese club. The statement from agency AS1, provided to Record, was unambiguous.

“Ruben Amorim made the decision a long time ago to pursue his career abroad.

“Therefore, he has not had any meetings with Portuguese clubs to discuss working conditions, structure, squad, salary, or anything else.

“Anything said beyond that is mere speculation and does not correspond to reality.”

The clarification arrives amid wider debate about how a manager’s reputation is shaped after leaving a post. Assessments rarely remain static once a manager departs, and the surrounding events can recast a tenure for better or worse. The draft of recent histories includes comparisons with Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid spell, which has been read in a new light by what followed at the club.

Amorim has suffered a different fate. There were few flattering eulogies to mark the end of his Manchester United tenure. That retrospective view hardened after the instant success of his successor, Michael Carrick, who led the exact same set of players which were dumped out of the Carabao Cup second round to fourth-tier Grimsby Town to third place in the Premier League.

Still, not everyone at Old Trafford views his time there only negatively. “I really like Ruben, he’s got great ideas,” Harry Maguire reflected back in March. “The ideas just didn’t work at Manchester United. I do believe he’ll go on and have an amazing career, and at his next club he’ll probably go and win many, many football matches.”

AS1’s public statement narrows the immediate field of possible destinations by stating that Amorim has not held talks with clubs in Portugal. For now the agency has framed his future as one to be pursued outside his home nation, and it has described any alternative reports as speculation that does not reflect reality.

Manchester United look set to favour Michael Carrick for the permanent manager role after Andoni Iraola was apparently taken off the club’s shortlist. Carrick returned to Old Trafford in January as interim and, by securing Champions League qualification with three games to spare, has become the leading internal candidate.

Iraola, who opted to leave Bournemouth and had emerged as a credible external alternative, is reportedly “no longer under consideration,” according to the Daily Mail. That development strengthens Carrick’s position after a run of positive results under his stewardship.

Carrick’s managerial résumé is limited at the top level — his only permanent appointment to date was Middlesbrough in the EFL Championship — but his long association with the club counts for a great deal. He spent 15 years at Old Trafford as a player, captain and then assistant coach. Club figures have been “hugely impressed” by the results and by the way he has “galvanized” a previously underperforming squad.

Those internal endorsements appear to have translated into formal momentum. According to The Athletic, club officials are set to formally recommend a permanent contract for Carrick in an upcoming meeting with co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

Iraola’s stock rests on three strong seasons at Bournemouth and earlier overachievement with Rayo Vallecano. His high-tempo style was seen as a possible fit on paper, and he could yet leave the Cherries in the Champions League if results in the next three weeks go in Bournemouth’s favour. The counterargument is a perceived lack of elite-level experience and the uncertainty of whether club-building success can be replicated at a club with greater pressure and smaller margins for error. The draft cites previous high-profile moves that did not go to plan at other clubs, including David Moyes, Graham Potter at Chelsea, and Unai Emery at Arsenal.

Separately, Iraola is reportedly a primary target for Crystal Palace to replace Oliver Glasner.