Manchester United have ‘pulled the plug on a fly-on-the-wall documentary that would have banked them more than £10million’.
United had been in talks with Amazon over being the latest side in their All or Nothing series and they were locked in negotiations for months.
But according to The Athletic, the club decided on balance that the intrusion could negatively impact performances on the pitch.
They report that Ruben Amorim was not comfortable with the arrangement – despite the temptation to cash in with what would have been the highest amount paid for an All or Nothing series.
Time pressure of the upcoming campaign and commercial reasons were reportedly other key factors, but ultimately without Amorim’s support there was no progress to be made.
Opening up United to the cameras during what is a turbulent time at Old Trafford could have made for compelling viewing.
Ruben Amorim (second from left) was not keen on the Amazon documentary team coming in
Arsenal were the subject of an ‘All Or Nothing’ documentary, as were Tottenham
Amorim was worried about the distraction of having cameras everywhere next season
Amorim has made his feelings known on Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford, with the Portuguese manager not one to pull punches.
United endured an awful season after Amorim took over from sacked Erik ten Hag, leading them to 15th in the Premier League.
Missing out on the Champions League by losing the Europa League final against Tottenham was also a massive blow, especially financially.
There was support for the documentary from the commercial department but only if the football department agreed.
Chief executive Omar Berrada was also said to be on board with the Amazon proposal.
The fact that United were happy to go with Amorim’s view of a distracting, negative impact shows they are putting their full weight behind him.
The club have already signed Matheus Cunha and are closing in on Bryan Mbeumo – two additions who should in theory make United markedly stronger.
There remains an issue with outgoings, with Rashford and Garnacho among those the club desperately want to move on.
Marcus Rashford (left) is surplus to requirements and Alejandro Garnacho (right) was told to find a new club
Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ were all interested in making a documentary series following Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s takeover of the football department but it has not gone to plan
Netflix, Amazon and Disney all reached out to United with interest in making a documentary following a revival under Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
But given the poor start to INEOS’ stewardship, it is perhaps no surprise there is an unwillingness to push for the access-all-areas show.
So far, there have been more than 450 redundancies at the club and Ratcliffe claimed they were in danger of going out of business back in March without his deeply unpopular cost-cutting methods.