Manchester United news LIVE: Ruben Amorim to be announced as new manager with complex timeline revealed

“Yes I saw him Monday here and spoke to him before the game, he is very disappointed and touched. He cared for the club, the first conversations we had, I felt he cared and loved the club and wanted to bring the club forward. That is where we connected. He is also proud of his achievements here.

“In the end, it is also clear in football that is the results and Erik also said, in pre-season we had new staff and all were very positive and all working hard to bring the club forward.

“There are things you can’t explain sometimes. I also remember the Brighton goal we scored and then you concede the 2-1, so many games we felt we could get a better result, talking Palace, West Ham, Porto, Fenerbahce but we also know it is about results and that is part of our job.”

“I decided to come back here for a very important reasons, that I am here as an assistant, I came here to help the club forward and I am still very motivated to do so in any capacity, as an assistant and now an interim and after that I go back to my assistant contract that I have for this season and next. I am very motivated to stay here and help the club forward. That’s my goal.

“I can speak about my side of the story and when a new manager is signing and conversations take place we have to see how things develop.

“I want to do everything I can with my abilities to help this club.”

Manchester United interim manager Ruud van Nistelrooy spoke about whether he will be in charge of the club on Sunday.

He said: “I am guessing that too, as I said I was told it is going to be a short job as an interim, I was happy with that, I felt that I was called upon to help the club in the situation and obviously it was difficult, Erik had to leave, with mixed feelings but you have to switch the mindset to win, at the end 75,000 people waiting and millions watching at home.

“That is what we try to do and same on Sunday.”

What did Ruben Amorim say about Manchester United?

“It’s a negotiation between two clubs. It’s never easy, even with the [release] clauses. They have to talk. We will have clarification after the game, it will be very clear. So it’s one more day and after the game tomorrow, we will have a decision made. We’ll leave that until the end of the game [when] I’ll talk about all these issues. Right now I want the team to focus and me too.

“I promise I’ll talk about it at the end of the game and everything will be clearer. By talking now, it’s destabilising the squad further. Right now, the focus is on Estrela da Amadora. As for doing things differently, I wouldn’t. I didn’t control any of the situation.”

Ruud van Nistelrooy will speak to the media at 4:30pm this afternoon, after Ruben Amorim said the “soap opera” around his Manchester United appointment is close to coming to an end and will be clarified tomorrow night.

Van Nistelrooy took charge of United’s Carabao Cup win over Leicester City on Wednesday night and is set to remain in charge for Sunday’s match against Chelsea - with reports suggesting that Amorim may not start until the November international break.

“Without a doubt, without a doubt,” Amorim admits when asked if his players would be mad with him for leaving. “But I don’t interfere in the players’ lives. Now I talk to the players, because I’m Sporting coach. I want to do well for the group.

“I talked to the board about how we are going to manage the squad. But without a doubt my players will be, if I leave, they will be disappointed in me and sad with me. But it’s part of life.

“That happened with me already in Braga. When I came from Braga, from Braga’s stability to here, that happened a little.

“And they were a little disappointed, because they really believed that we were building something special. But then things happen that change people’s lives. And so, it’s a difficult situation.

“I can’t give you more than that. I understand that the players are even disappointed, sad. But I have to live with it. And the important thing is that we reach the end and know how to explain everything.

“Whether people understand it or not, the important thing is to come forward and explain it. And that’s what I’m going to do.”

Jose Mourinho believes Manchester United are hiring the “best coach in Portugal”.

That’s according to the Manchester Evening News, which recalls how Amorim visited United's Carrington training complex when Mourinho was manager in April 2018 for an internship. Amorim had started a postgraduate degree at the University of Lisbon and Mourinho was a coordinator and lecturer on its high performance coaching course.

Amorim, Mourinho remembers, was a “good kid” who sticks to his preferred style of play whatever the opposition, and who is “always intense”.

Ruben Amorim said the “soap opera” about his future is ending as he suggested his move to Manchester United will be announced on Friday evening.

United will activate the 39-year-old’s £8.3m release clause with Sporting Lisbon but they are negotiating with the Portuguese champions to ensure Amorim does not have to serve a 30-day notice period, while they also want to agree terms to bring his backroom staff to Old Trafford.

Sporting hope to keep Amorim until the November international break - which would mean he would face Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday - and they host Estrela on Friday night, with Amorim believing he will be able to provide more of an update then.

Ruben Amorim will be announced as Manchester United’s new manager either today or tomorrow, with talks between United’s hierarchy and Sporting CP completed.

Sky Sports reported this morning that the announcement would be made today, though it has since rowed back on that timeline. Amorim himself said that he would discuss the issue in public for the first time after tomorrow’s game against Estrela.

Either way, there is not long to wait until the Portuguese is confirmed as the man to succeed Erik ten Hag.

Ruud van Nistelrooy always promised goals for Manchester United. There were 36 in his first season as a player, 44 in his second. There were seven in his first game as their interim manager, five of them for United. The third-lowest scorers in the Premier League, United discovered a prolific streak under him. If it is to prove his lone evening in charge of United, what a night for him.

It was a nostalgia trip when Van Nistelrooy headed down the tunnel at half-time to be serenaded by the Stretford End. The choruses of his name, the guttural growls of “Ruud”, may have transported them back to 2003, to a happier time, and if United can forever seek solace in their past, when actually needing to escape it, this was an enjoyable interlude before Ruben Amorim’s tenure begins, assuming it does and depending on when it actually starts.