Man United head coach Ruben Amorim explains Sir Jim Ratcliffe meeting amid ongoing sack rumours at Old Trafford

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has joked that he was offered a new contract by the club's co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe during Thursday's meeting.

Ratcliffe flew into Manchester on Thursday to meet with Amorim at the club's Carrington training ground, and there had been suggestions that the manager's future at the helm was a topic of debate.

However, the 72-year-old is still believed to be fully behind Amorim, with the Portuguese being backed to overcome a tough start to the 2025-26 campaign.

Amorim was asked about the meeting during his press conference on Friday, and he joked that he had been offered a new contract by the INEOS chief.

"New contract. He was offering me a new contract [laughs]," the Man United boss told reporters. "No, it was normal things, to show his support, explaining that it is a long project. He said many times this is my first season. For me it's not.

"But normal things. I spoke with him, Omar [Berrada] and Jason [Wilcox], trying to see all the data around the team. So a normal meeting and we had several. But in this moment, it's normal people pay attention to that."

Amorim met with Ratcliffe at Carrington on Thursday

Man United are currently preparing for Saturday's Premier League clash against Chelsea, and the Red Devils will be aiming to bounce back from their 3-0 loss to Manchester City last weekend.

A poor start to the season has seen the 20-time English champions pick up only four points from four matches, which has left them down in 14th spot in the Premier League table.

"This is football and this is maybe the club with the most pressure in the world. We want to win. And again, you can say whatever. I think last year I was very critical of the way we played," continued Amorim on Friday.

"I think we are playing well until the boxes - defending and attacking. We need to be more aggressive in the boxes and more clinical. The rest, I think we are improving. And comparing to last year, we're in a better place.

"But we need to win and we lost against Arsenal and City. Here losing, in the beginning, especially after last season, is a problem."

Man United should have an advantage in Chelsea battle

Man United will be the fresher of the two teams heading into the Chelsea match, as the Blues were in Champions League action against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night, while the Red Devils had a free week due to their absence from European competition.

"We used that time to analyse the last game, analyse the next game and prepare different things. I think, again, we are playing well until we reach the boxes. We need to be more clinical. If you see the number of shots, the xG, all these things are good, but if you don't score, or win games, it doesn't matter," he said.

"Then, again, I said after the last game, the way we suffer the goals, we can avoid it. We are being naive and we need to be more aggressive to win games. We just need to maintain how we are playing, with improving in the opponent's box and our box.

"That was the focus of the week, especially with Chelsea, which is a team that crosses they have more guys in the box and we suffer a little bit against Fulham and we work a lot during the week on that. It's always the same cycle. Analyse what we did and improve for the next week."

Man United have received a double fitness boost for Saturday's match, with Matheus Cunha and Mason Mount both available for selection after missing the Manchester derby through injury.