'Angry' Ruben Amorim felt 'betrayed' by Man Utd in final hours before savage sacking, body language expert reveals

The curtain came down on the 40-year-old’s tenure at Old Trafford after less than two seasons, following a media briefing where he openly questioned the club's recruitment and direction. While the verbal outburst grabbed the headlines, a closer inspection of his non-verbal cues reveals a man who felt deeply isolated and misled by those above him.

Stanton analysed the footage of the manager’s final exchange with the press, painting a picture of a figure who knew the end was near. The most damming assessment suggests that the former Sporting CP boss felt abandoned by the INEOS-led ownership, appearing to grieve the project he thought he was joining rather than the reality he faced.

"Amorim isn’t levelling the accountability for this situation on his team," Stanton observed to OLBG. "He looks like a man who feels he’s been wheeled out for a cross-examination in court for issues that aren’t down to him. I think he felt betrayed and misled but I think for the most part it's betrayal. I think he feels he's been thrown under the bus."

The tension in the room was palpable when the subject turned to transfers and the manager's rigid adherence to his 3-4-3 formation. When pressed by a journalist on these topics, the mask slipped. Stanton noted that while the coach tried to deflect, his face betrayed a "real flash of anger" that went beyond standard frustration.

"Amorim’s eyes are pierced. His eyebrows are down," Stanton explained. "It’s a facial expression as if to say I’ve told you, now move on. He is pissed off at being pinned down on this topic."

Perhaps most telling was a fleeting expression that many might have missed. As the questions continued to probe the sensitive areas of his relationship with the board, the manager offered a subtle, one-sided smile.

"We then see a sly smile across his face. That’s contempt. It’s what we call a bilateral smile. It is a gestural slip," the expert revealed. "When we smile on one side of our face, it’s a way of expressing contempt and in this context it’s Amorim effectively saying that he’s said all he wants to say, and now you’re not listening to me."

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The interaction with the journalist, who the manager sarcastically labelled "very smart," was the turning point. Stanton believes this comment was an admission of vulnerability, a recognition that the reporter had struck a nerve that the club had left exposed.

"To call the journalist very smart was an admission that the questions were getting too close for comfort," Stanton said. "They were hitting the mark, hitting a nerve, and they were the wrong questions to ask right now for how Amorim was feeling."

The physical toll of the job was written across the tactician's forehead. The "furrow lines" identified by the expert indicated a combination of anger and frustration. It was the look of a man full of regret, not necessarily for his actions, but for the situation he found himself in.

"He is not a happy person at all," Stanton concluded. "He is not in a very good place at all, emotionally."

Ultimately, the body language confirmed what the sacking later proved: the relationship between manager and club was broken beyond repair. The "betrayal" he felt in those final hours has now manifested in his dismissal, leaving Manchester United to search for yet another saviour while Amorim is left to count the cost of a move that promised so much but delivered only frustration.

The physical toll of the job was written across the tactician's forehead in his final hours as boss. The "furrow lines" identified by the expert indicated a combination of anger and "inner turmoil." It was the look of a man full of regret, not necessarily for his actions, but for the situation he found himself in. 

"Amorim looked like a man full of regret because things weren't going the way he wanted on the pitch or how he expected from the club when it came to what he was sold when he took the job," Stanton concluded. "He is not a happy person at all. He is not in a very good place at all, emotionally."