Ruben Amorim insists Europa League success will not solve Man Utd’s problems: ‘Nothing is going to save our season’

The Europa League could offer Manchester United a route back into the Champions League

Ruben Amorim has declared that even Europa League glory will not solve Manchester United’s problems as he stressed that there will still be major issues at Old Trafford even if they are back in the Champions League.

United face Athletic Bilbao in the first leg of their semi-final on Thursday, with a potential final against either Tottenham or Bodo/Glimt and the chance to play in the premier European competition again next season, even though they are only 14th in the Premier League.

It could provide a £100m boost to their revenue and transform Amorim’s transfer budget but the United head coach is adamant that the problems at Old Trafford are deep-rooted.

“Nothing is going to save our season,” he said. “Of course people are going to look in a different way for this season, especially for the coach. Again, it's something more in the core of our club. We need to change a lot of things and we need to be consistent.

“Europa League is not change anything in our problems - it's going to give us Champions League next year, more money to spend - but the problems are still there. We have to change the minds of our fans with consistency, good decisions, good recruitment, good academy. This is what we need to change to take our club back to the top.

“This is more of a shortcut to go to the European games. Nothing more. The problems we need to solve in a different way with more time and we're really clear on that.”

United could finish as low as 17th in the Premier League and yet qualify for the Champions League and Amorim said: “I think it’s the rules, it’s hard to talk about that.

“Maybe you can say it’s not fair because the best teams, the champions, should be in Champions League, but you have this competition to give value to this competition, it’s like one cup in our league. If you win the cup you go to European games. It’s the rules, I don’t know if it’s fair or not but if there is that possibility we have to try and reach it.”