Michael Carrick has kicked off his interim managerial tenure at Manchester United in impressive fashion, but his future beyond this summer is set to remain up in the air
Michael Carrick could be set for a big disappointment when Manchester United finally decide who to appoint as permanent manager at the end of this season. Carrick led United to a 2-0 win over 10-man Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend.
It marked his fourth win in a row since taking over as interim head coach last month – the first time the side have managed such a run since Erik ten Hag’s reign. The former Middlesbrough boss took over from Ruben Amorim halfway through a turbulent season but has since steered the side to fourth place in the Premier League, meaning they are on track to qualify for the Champions League.
Monumental wins over Manchester City and Arsenal under Carrick have encapsulated a perfect start to his tenure. Despite the plan initially being for the 44-year-old to only hold the position until this summer, United’s impressive results have led some fans and pundits to call for his permanent appointment.
Speaking on the eve of Saturday’s game against Spurs, however, Carrick himself insisted there could be no “knee-jerk” decisions over the role. And he could be set for a huge blow following indications that the club hierarchy are still looking elsewhere for a long-term managerial appointment.
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Minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has previously spoken openly about his own mistakes, notably the impulsive decision to renew Ten Hag’s contract in July 2024 after he won the FA Cup, despite it not being the right call in the grand scheme of things. Instead, United appear to now be taking a more measured and less emotional approach, which could mean Carrick may not be deemed the right permanent candidate even if he is successful from now until the end of the season.
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Ratcliffe admitted after sacking Ten Hag: “We are not perfect, and we are on a journey and there have been a couple of errors along the way, but I think in the main all the things we are doing are the right things for the club.
“I agree the Erik ten Tag and [former sporting director] Dan Ashworth decisions were errors. I think there were some mitigating circumstances, but ultimately they were errors. I accept that and I apologise for that.”
Carrick’s former United team-mate Gary Neville has since echoed that same sentiment, by claiming a source at the club told him United have already started the search for their next head coach. That suggests the United hierarchy have not been wholly swayed by Carrick’s impressive start to life in the role.
Speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast, the former right-back said the process to appoint a new boss is already underway. He explained: “I made my position clear a few weeks ago and what I’m not going to do is repeat it every week, but what I did, I actually spoke to the club, because ultimately the club get asked all the time from journalists and broadcasters, what’s the position of the club.
“It’s a very difficult situation, you’ve got a massive movement now with what’s happened towards giving Carrick the job, saying that really he should be considered. That’s only going to build the more that he wins and the more that he gets closer to Champions League football.
“I asked the club what is the official position of the football club in terms of what you’re saying publicly to everybody else. I have to say I thought their answer was pretty good. They said they’ve actually begun the process now, starting to look for another manager, which I thought, ‘Right.’
“That’s good to hear because you need to plan for everything. They’ve started the process of speaking to and looking at other managers, building all the sorts of data and analysing who should be the next manager of the football club. But what they’ve said is they’re not going to be bounced into – irrespective of wins or draws or losses on the pitch in this next couple of months – making an appointment. They’re going to wait until towards the end of the season.”
Carrick spent two-and-a-half years in the Championship with Middlesbrough before he was sacked by the club last summer. Prior to his spell in the second-tier, he was part of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s coaching staff at Old Trafford and also enjoyed a brief caretaker stint after the Norwegian was sacked in 2021. Neville, however, went on to raise the question of whether or not his fellow United legend would actually put himself forward for the role full-time.
The pundit added: “If Michael then at that point makes himself available for the job, and I did actually say a couple of weeks ago, I wondered whether Michael actually would say no. He is that type of guy Michael, he’s someone who would always work in the best interest of the football club. He may do that, or he might say no, I feel comfortable enough and I’ve built such a good relationship with the players, his coaching staff to put his name in the hat.
“At that point Michael Carrick, like in any other recruitment role in the country for any other business, would go into what would be a process versus the likes of Thomas Tuchel and all the others that are going to become available in the summer. I think that’s fair.”
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