It is four months since Ruben Amorim turned on Alejandro Garnacho in a tense end-of-season meeting at Manchester United and told him to pray he could find a new club.
On Saturday evening, Amorim will be hoping to God that Garnacho doesn’t make him pay for those words.
As if seeing Marcus Rashford score two fantastic goals for Barcelona at Newcastle on Thursday night wasn’t awkward enough for Amorim, the prospect of another member of his ‘bomb squad’ exploding on his first return to Old Trafford with Chelsea might be too much for United’s embattled head coach to bear.
Garnacho will be desperate to shine on a stage he knows so well, and prove a point to the man who drove him out of United. So much so that Enzo Maresca will speak to the 21-year-old before deciding on his starting line-up, to see if it will be a hinderance or a help.
‘It can work both ways,’ said the Chelsea boss. ‘First of all, because he is young, so you don’t know how he can react. But also in case we decide to start with him, I will have a chat with him to ask also how he feels about that.’
Amorim, on the other hand, was more reluctant to speak about the Argentina forward at Carrington on Friday.
Alejandro Garnacho left Manchester United this summer after a five-year spell where he never quite fulfilled his huge potential
He made a £40million switch to Chelsea, and will be back at Old Trafford on Saturday evening hoping to twist the knife into his former team
‘Garnacho is not our player,’ said United’s head coach. ‘I’m focused on our players, the rest you have to talk with the Chelsea manager. Guys, I’m not concerned about that. I just want to win games. I don’t care who plays for the opponent.’
Amorim’s showdown with Garnacho at Carrington on May 24 came three days after his side lost the Europa League final to Tottenham in Bilbao. Garnacho aired his frustration at being left on the bench for 70 minutes in a post-match interview, in which he also branded United’s season ‘s***’.
‘I’m going to try to enjoy the summer and see what happens next,’ he said on his way out of the San Mames.
What happened next was that Amorim gathered his players together on their return to Manchester, and showed Garnacho the door.
Along with Rashford, Antony, Jadon Sancho and Tyrell Malacia, he was told to stay away from Carrington for the first week of pre-season training, and then train separately on their return.
Garnacho had access to the facilities and coaching staff, but only when the rest of the first-team squad had left. The situation wasn’t ideal, and one that had team-mates and staff walking on eggshells at times to avoid being seen to take sides.
The bomb squad were left at home when United went on tour to the US, meaning the last time Garnacho pulled on a United shirt was against a Hong Kong XI on a post-season trip to the Far East. His competitive record for United stands at 144 appearances, 26 goals and 22 assists, and the club statement confirming the end of an Old Trafford career that promised so much ran to just 123 words.
This wasn’t how it was meant to be for Garnacho. An explosive winger in the best traditions of United, hopes for a bright future at Old Trafford were encapsulated in the photo of him perched on a perimiter fence with Kobbie Mainoo and Rasmus Hojlund after scoring the first of his two goals against West Ham in February last year.
The once-iconic picture of Rasmus Hojlund, Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo celebrating one of the Argentine’s goals has now become a sad reminder of their failures
Garnacho’s outburst after being left on the bench until the 70th minute of the Europa League final was just one of many
Three months later came the highest point, as Garnacho and Mainoo posed for the cameras after scoring in the FA Cup final win over Manchester City for a United side that also featured Scott McTominay.
While Hojlund swigged champagne from a bottle at a celebratory dinner at the Marriott in Mayfair that night, Garnacho – still wearing his match shirt – re-enacted his goal of the season overhead kick against Everton with YouTuber iShowSpeed.
Fortunes can change quickly in football, however. Hojlund and McTominay returned to Manchester as Napoli players on Thursday night, Garnacho is back with Chelsea on Saturday, and a marginalised Mainoo has made it clear he would rather be playing his football elsewhere.
Garnacho’s return will bring mixed emotions among United fans as well as many of the staff who guided his career after he arrived from Atletico Madrid for £420,000 in 2020.
Bad boy or typical teenager? Miscreant or misunderstood? World-beater or weak link? The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between.
There was admiration for the son of a Spanish father and Argentine mother who moved to Manchester during the pandemic and showed the character and courage to adapt to his new surroundings.
Naturally quite a shy character, Garnacho is more extroverted on the pitch and sees himself as an entertainer. He inspired United’s Under 21s to win the FA Youth Cup and was quickly promoted to the first team, the boy with chiselled good looks was unmissable with bleach-blond hair.
While he aspired to be the next Cristiano Ronaldo, team-mates didn’t rate him as highly as he rated himself and felt he didn’t pass the ball enough. Both Erik ten Hag and Amorim were frustrated by his lack of discipline, especially in tracking back.
Both Ruben Amorim (left) and his predecessor Erik ten Hag were frustrated by Garnacho’s lack of discipline
Garnacho wanted to emulate his idol, Cristiano Ronaldo, but his team-mates were not convinced
Garnacho’s debut for Chelsea last week saw the best and worst of him. After coming off the bench to have a hand in a goal for Moises Caicedo, and putting himself front and centre of the celebrations, he then switched off and failed to track Fabio Carvalho when he grabbed a later equaliser for Brentford.
‘Players need time to adapt,’ said Maresca on Friday. ‘When we conceded the second goal against Brentford, two or three minutes before we conceded exactly the same throw-in and exactly the same chance, and the player behind Garnacho was alone again. So it happened twice, not only one time.’
Unlike Amorim, Ten Hag was won over after harbouring early doubts, but recognised the need to bring Garnacho down a peg or two.
Having reprimanded Garnacho for walking around the club with his socks down and shoelaces undone, Ten Hag took the youngster on his first pre-season tour to Thailand and Australia in 2022 but froze him out after Garnacho was late down to breakfast at the team hotel in Bangkok and another meeting on the trip. He did not feature until the final pre-season friendly against Rayo Vallecano.
‘The start of the season was difficult for him,’ said Ten Hag later. ‘I was not happy with him. Young kids have to know what the laws and demands are in top football.’
Senior players could find him exasperating. Some, like captain Bruno Fernandes – who admitted that Garnacho ‘did not have the best attitude’ on that tour – and Lisandro Martinez tried to guide him, but with limited success.
Inviting iShowSpeed to the Wembley celebration was by no means the first time eyes were rolled by team-mates and staff.
One former United player told Daily Mail Sport: ‘In our day, the dressing room would have sorted him out.’
Garnacho reacts after letting Fabio Carvalho run off him at the death in his Chelsea debut to grab a late equaliser for Brentford
Bruno Fernandes publicly criticised his team-mate after his petulance on tour in 2022
Garnacho could be sulky and petulant, and took criticism very badly. He was immature at times and showed it with his posts on social media. He had to apologise to Ten Hag for liking a comment criticising his substitution against Bournemouth and then a dig at the United boss by Ronaldo.
Garnacho fiercely denied accusations that he or his brother Roberto were responsible for leaking team news from Amorim’s camp last season.
At times, though, the younger sibling only poured fuel on the fire with his social media posts, accusing Amorim of throwing Alejandro ‘under the bus’ in Bilbao.
The winger also sparked anger among fans by posting a photo of himself wearing Rashford’s Aston Villa jersey after his team-mate moved to the Midlands in January.
By the time his United career drew to a close in August, he had deleted his X account and removed any mention of United from his Instagram bio.
Even without the problems, Garnacho would have been under threat from United appointing Amorim, a coach who preferred two No 10s to conventional wingers.
Could the player have helped himself by being more prepared to change his style and show a better attitude? Probably.
His United career never really recovered from an incident in Plzen in December. Amorim felt the substitute turned his back on him as he was giving him instructions on the touchline, and axed Garnacho for the Manchester derby three days later.
Garnacho’s United career never recovered from this moment in December, when Amorim felt he had turned his back on him while receiving instructions as he waited to come off the bench
Garnacho has a major point to prove on Saturday – but he has already failed to do so on too many occasions at Old Trafford
He then ticked him off for stomping straight down the tunnel after being substituted before half-time when Patrick Dorgu was sent off against Ipswich.
It became increasingly clear that he did not figure in Amorim’s plans and needed a fresh start. In April, it emerged that the seven-bedroom house in Bowdon that Garnacho had bought a year earlier for his ex-partner Eva Garcia and their son Enzo, as well as other family members over from Spain, was on the market for £3.85million.
United backed Amorim by agreeing to sell Garnacho to Chelsea, even though the £40m fee for a player once seen as untouchable at Old Trafford was just over half the £70m quoted to Napoli in January.
On his return, Garnacho will be determined to show his old club it was a costly mistake.
