United’s hopes of ending the season with a trophy took another hit after the Red Devils were knocked out of the FA Cup on penalties by Fulham.
Amorim’s side fell behind on the brink of half-time after Calvin Bassey headed home from a corner but drew level after the break through Bruno Fernandes’ superb finish.
After failing to find a winner in the rest of normal time and extra-time, the defending champions were taken to penalties in front of their own fans and two saves from Bernd Leno saw Marco Silva’s side punch their ticket into the quarter-finals.
While their trophy hopes for this season now rest solely on the Europa League, Amorim stood behind his ongoing project and said he still harboured ambitions of one day winning the league with United.
‘The goal is to win the Premier League. I know that we are losing games but the goal is to win the Premier League again,’ he told BBC post-match.
‘I don’t know how long it will take. We have a goal and we continue forward no matter what. it’s impossible to know but you start understanding the players are better and we understand the league. We’ll see in the future.’
Those comments, however, came under scrutiny from Rooney who suggested it was naive thing for Amorim to say given his side’s current plight.
‘It’s very difficult to come in during the season and have no pre-season, but he has to look to the future and moving forward,’ Rooney told BBC.
‘He says winning the Premier League, how can they compete? To get further up the table, I think that’s the next step for them.
‘Managers aren’t getting that time over the last 10 or 15 years. You have to be selfish as a manager and say ‘okay, if I don’t do it now I might not get that time.’ I think it’s a little naive to say they’re looking to win the Premier League because from where they are now, they’re a long way off that.’
But asked about Rooney’s comments in his post-match press conference, Amorim refused to back down, suggesting it was easy for pundits to criticse his ambitions with United.
‘No that is the goal,’ Amorim said. ‘It would be naive to think that we are going to do that this season or that we’ll be the main contedner for next season.
‘I know that in this moment everybody knows everything. I know that this is really easy, I was a pundit when I finished my career so I know it’s easy (to say).
‘Our goal is to win the Premier League. Maybe it’s not with me but our club is to win the Premier League like we did previously.
‘We want to do better and we are in a difficult moment but I am not naive. That’s why I’m here coaching Manchester United at 40 years old.’
United will look to get back to winnings ways in midweek when they travel to Spain to face Real Sociedad in their Europa League last-16 first leg.
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