Ruben Amorim reflects on 'really tough' first year at Man United on his anniversary of joining the club - and vows to stay on 'for many years'

Ruben Amorim admits his first year as Manchester United’s head coach has been ‘really tough’ but hopes he will remain in charge at Old Trafford ‘for many years’.

Saturday’s visit to Nottingham Forest marks Amorim’s first anniversary in the job, even though he didn’t start work for 11 days after that or oversee his first game away to Ipswich for several weeks.

Asked about his 12 months at United, Amorim admitted that his response would have been different than it would have been before United won their last three games against Sunderland, Liverpool and Brighton.

‘It was a journey, a big journey,’ he said. ‘It was tough, really tough, good moments and bad moments. 

'I learned a lot that is really important. I found out that even in my lower moments I can stick with the things I believe, and that is a good thing for anyone to understand.

‘Today the answer is different from three weeks ago. It’s one of the biggest honours of my life to be here and I want to continue here for many years.’

Amorim doesn’t know if Harry Maguire will be fit to return to the squad at Forest after the England defender missed the win over Brighton with a knock, but won’t risk Lisandro Martinez despite the Argentine resuming full training for the first time since rupturing the ACL in his left knee in February.

‘He wants to go to this one, but he's not going to this one,’ added Amorim. ‘He's done training with us, so slowly he's going to get better. 

'He's really good and he gives us that edge in every training session, that is also really good for us. The rest of the guys we have one more day, I don't know about Harry Maguire.’