There hasn’t been a knock on Ruben Amorim’s office door this week. The message conveyed by the Mainoo family to the Manchester United manager came in public, at Old Trafford. Jordan Mainoo-Hames, the half-brother of an underused midfielder, wore a T-shirt during United’s 4-4 draw with Bournemouth bearing the message: “Free Kobbie Mainoo”.
Amorim released him from the bench for half an hour, giving Mainoo one of his longest outings of the season. It probably was not the kind of liberation the former Love Island contestant had in mind; not when there is a theory Mainoo needs to be starting regularly, either for United or someone else, and when the transfer window reopens soon.
Amorim, for what it is worth, will not punish Mainoo for the actions of another. “It was not Kobbie that wore the t-shirt,” he said. “He is not going to start because of the t-shirt, but he’s not going to the bench because of the t-shirt. He’s going to play if we feel that he is the right guy to play.”
And that judgment call tends to be the crux of the issue. Amorim praised Mainoo for his cameo on Monday, saying: “He played really well.”
Yet this season, he has only felt Mainoo was the right guy to start against Grimsby. He is only one of four senior players in the United squad yet to begin a Premier League match. The other three are Lisandro Martinez, who has only recently returned from a cruciate ligament injury, Tyrell Malacia, who spent the summer in the bomb squad of players Amorim was trying to offload, and third-choice goalkeeper Tom Heaton, whose last top-flight game came on New Year’s Day. And in 2020, not 2025.
For Mainoo, outstanding in the semi-final of Euro 2024, a starter in the final, it has been quite a fall from grace. No wonder some think a loan in January would be in his best interests. For anyone looking to borrow him, he could be a free Kobbie Mainoo. Some 18 months ago, he may have been valued at £60m or £70m.
He has not been to Amorim to discuss his situation this week. The lack of knocks on his office door, the United manager lamented, seem to reflect a wider sense of entitlement at Old Trafford. He objected to the way Harry Amass and Chido Obi would rather communicate with him via the medium of the social-media post than in person when, the United manager he feels, he said nothing wrong about either.
Mainoo is a different case; the objections came from his brother. But not just his brother. Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt, former United midfielders with the small matter of 1105 appearances for the club between them, advised him to leave for the sake of his career.
There seemed dissent from the Old Trafford crowd, too, on Monday when Mainoo’s entrance was greeted with huge cheers. Ex-players and supporters alike seem to side more with the sidelined midfielder than the manager.
And, at the very least, Amorim’s appointment can appear a poor piece of planning. In the summer of 2024, the three United players deemed not for sale, the crown jewels, the great hopes for the future, were Rasmus Hojlund, Alejandro Garnacho and Mainoo. Now two are gone, one permanently, and the third could be forgiven for following.
Like much else at Old Trafford, it can be traced back in part to Amorim’s 3-4-3. In relocating Bruno Fernandes to a deeper role, he made Mainoo a back-up; that Casemiro is suspended for Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa could afford an opening but last time the Brazilian was banned he turned to Manuel Ugarte.
The sense is that he feels Mainoo is not defensive enough to be a No 6 – and United certainly lost control when he came on for Casemiro against Brighton – and without the ability to get into the box he wants from a No 8. Mainoo may suit a midfield three, but Amorim does not play one. He certainly did not suit the roles of false nine and No 10 in which he was strangely, and briefly, deployed last season.
Amorim dealt smilingly with questions about Mainoo on Friday. Often, though, it appears one of his least favourite subjects. “I know you love Kobbie,” he had said, sounding petulant, after the draw against West Ham. If the essential problem may be that others, from Mainoo’s family to United’s past midfielders, have a higher opinion of the 20-year-old than the manager, Amorim suggested he should remain and change his opinion.
“You have legends of the club who say if you don’t play, leave, because everyone is wrong,” he said. “No, let’s stay, let’s fight, let’s overcome, maybe the manager is wrong.”
Amorim is probably in the minority. When it comes to Mainoo, most think he has got it wrong, to some degree or another. But if Ugarte is preferred to him at Villa Park, there could be ever more who think the man in the T-shirt had a point and that, instead of fighting, he would be better off going.
