Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim addresses Man City Pep Guardiola speculation

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim never discussed the possibility of replacing Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.

Amorim was the frontrunner to take over from Guardiola before he signed a new two-year contract with the Premier League champions, who have hired Amorim's former colleague Hugo Viana as their new sporting director for when Txiki Begiristain departs in the summer.

Viana worked with Amorim at Sporting and the pair are close personally and professionally. United chief executive Omar Berrada convinced Amorim to join the club following the sacking of Erik ten Hag amid interest from City.

City denied they ever considered Amorim as a contender to succeed Guardiola and Amorim confirmed he received no contact from United's neighbours before Guardiola signed his extension three weeks ago.

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"Never. Never heard from them and this was my only option," he said. "When Manchester United talked to me I had no doubts. I had already something in my mind that could be a possibility. With Manchester City or Viana? Nothing about that."

Guardiola is enduring the worst period of his 16-and-a-half year coaching career after City lost 2-0 to Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday night. City have won one of their past ten matches, losing seven, with one of those reverses coming against Sporting in Amorim's penultimate match in charge last month.

United have lost their last two league matches and have not suffered three successive league losses since December 2015. They came from behind to beat Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League on Thursday evening but head into a