Manchester United are set to sack a coaching staff member who worked under Sir Alex Ferguson for years, according to a new report.
Manchester United goalkeepers struggle for form
United are having a season to forget. After a record-breaking bad start to the season under Erik ten Hag, the Dutch coach was replaced by Ruben Amorim in November. The Red Devils paid over £9 million to release Amorim from his contract with Sporting, but rather than change United’s fortunes as expected, things have only gotten worse.
Amorim has lost six of his first 11 games in charge, which is the worst record of any new United manager since Walter Crickmer in the 1930s. During that period, Amorim’s men have also kept just one clean sheet, that being against Everton, and shipped 21 goals.
As a result of that dismal record, United’s goalkeepers Andre Onana and Altay Bayindir have come under heavy fire, especially given the fact that they’ve both made high-profile errors.
Both have conceded goals directly from corners in recent weeks, which former Premier League striker turned pundit Chris Sutton described to BBC Sport as “under-12s stuff”.
“I remember it happening when I was watching my son play when he was about 15 and he got done off a corner. I told him you would never see it happen to a professional goalkeeper, but it has happened twice in two weeks to Manchester United.You could not make it up.”
United to sack Tony Coton
As a result of their goalkeeping woes, United are now preparing to sack chief goalkeeping scout Tony Coton. According to Football Insider, Amorim has made clear to United’s hierarchy that he has not been impressed by either Onana or Bayindir since he took charge at Old Trafford.
Coton, who brought both players to the club, is now set to pay the price, with Football Insider saying he’s “next in the firing line” for new owners INEOS and Jim Ratcliffe.
The 63-year-old has longstanding association with United. He spent part of the penultimate season of his playing career at Old Trafford in 1996, before returning to serve as the goalkeeping coach from 1997 to 2007 under Sir Alex Ferguson. After a stint as a chief scout for several other teams, he returned to United in 2020 and has remained there ever since.
During his time as United’s goalkeeper coach, Coton was a fly on the wall for some of the most high-profile incidents of Fergie’s tenure as boss, including his infamous bust-ups with David Beckham and Roy Keane.
Writing for the Mail Online in 2017 about Ferguson, Coton lifted the lid on what it was like to work under the legendary Scotsman.
“Sir Alex Ferguson was a master of when to pick his fights,” he wrote. “One of his great attributes was to treat every player the same way.
“It didn’t matter if it was a first-team player on £100,000 a week or an academy kid learning the ropes, he would always deliver a punishment that fitted the crime – and no one was above the law.”
