Michael Carrick looks set to be named as Manchester United's interim boss - and the former midfielder is walking into a job that's worse than when he first left
15:53, 12 Jan 2026
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Michael Carrick is walking into an impossible job(Image: PA)
Michael Carrick is walking straight onto a hiding to nothing. For the second time in his career, Carrick will become interim manager of Manchester United. A role otherwise known as the' impossible job'.
Carrick is heading back into a club that's somehow in a worse place than when he took caretaker charge in November, 2021. He will find a group of players with no trophies left to win.
While some of them will have no motivation to secure Champions League qualification, because they will be leaving in the summer. Squad morale is on the floor, because United's campaign is now in the gutter alongside the club's once great reputation.
(L-R) Manchester United's Portuguese midfielder Bruno Fernandes, Manchester United's English first-team coach Michael Carrick and Manchester United's Norwegian manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer look on during the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on October 30, 2021. - Manchester United won the game 3-0. - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by Glyn KIRK / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
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Michael Carrick left Manchester United in 2021, and he's since managed Middlesbrough(Image: GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
But somehow Carrick has to find some confidence and belief in a group of players from minute one. Because United have the small matter of a derby showdown with Manchester City at Old Trafford this weekend.
Good luck with that, mate. Carrick has been here before of course, and knows what it takes to succeed at the fallen giants. He is student of the game, an intelligent individual capable of bringing some calm to all the chaos.
But he will soon realise he has a group of players incapable of fitting in to certain systems. So his first task will be to work out a formation which gets the best from the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Casemiro and Matheus Cunha, while not leaving his defence too exposed.
Manchester United's Norwegian manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (R) talks with Manchester United's English first-team coach Michael Carrick during the English Premier League football match between Manchester United and Sheffield United at Old Trafford in Manchester, north west England, on June 24, 2020. (Photo by Martin Rickett / POOL / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo by MARTIN RICKETT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
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Michael Carrick has reportedly beaten Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to the role(Image: MARTIN RICKETT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
In short, the former Middlesborough manager who hasn't worked since last June, has the mother of all challenges on his hands. At a club he will struggle to recognise as the same one he graced with such distinction during his glittering playing career.
United's campaign is so embarrassing they are setting records which haven't been broken since World War II. You have to go back that long to find the last time United had no silverware to compete for at this stage of a season.
No FA Cup. No Carabao Cup and no European competition to even begin with. And no chance of United winning the title. The best United can now hope for is to squeeze and squirm into the European places. That's how bad its got.
One of the supposed biggest clubs on the planet, scavenging for scraps from the rubbish it has overwhelmed by. United have become a parody.
A laughing stock of epic proportions. Rotten from top to bottom. A club owned by two billionaire brothers from Florida (Joel and Avi Glazer), who have somehow managed to oversee years of dereliction and dysfunction, while still making huge profits.
And another bloke, in the shape of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who has been woefully exposed as incapable of co-owning a business like United. Ratcliffe used to have the Midas touch in other fields.
But when it comes to this footballing monster from the red half of Manchester, whatever Ratcliffe touches turns to the brown stuff. United are stuck in the past, which is depriving them of a future.
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A club which has drowned in its own shameless obsession with arrogance and entitlement. A team which can't beat Grimsby Town, and has a captain in Bruno Fernandes, who cannot wait to leave.
While the climate is so humiliating, the squad will once again be cancelling the end of season prize-giving night. What's the point in staging such an occasion, when no-one is deserving of an award?
People used to raise glasses to United to toast their relentless success.