Jonathan Woodgate is set to join Michael Carrick at Manchester United
11:47, 13 Jan 2026
Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick consults with his management team
Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick consults with his management team(Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Former Middlesbrough manager Jonathan Woodgate is set to join Michael Carrick at Manchester United - with Carrick set to be named the new interim head coach at Old Trafford.
It’s now widely reported that Carrick has agreed a deal in principle to take the reins at Manchester United after Ruben Amorim was sacked last week. It will be Carrick’s first role since being sacked by Boro in the summer.
Now, PA Sport report that Carrick will have a four-man coaching team supporting him, which will include Woodgate, who assisted Carrick at the Riverside during his two-and-a-half-year stay at Boro.
As well as Woodgate, Carrick will be backed by former England assistant manager Steve Holland, Jonny Evans and Travis Binnion. Caretaker boss Darren Fletcher was reportedly offered a role on the team but opted to return to his role as under-18s boss.
Woodgate will join Manchester United with Carrick until the end of the season. He is a former Leeds United team-mate of United’s director of football Jason Wilcox.
Woodgate landed the Boro manager role in 2019 but lasted just 41 games, winning only nine, before being sacked by Steve Gibson. After a spell as coach and caretaker manager at Bournemouth, where he led the Cherries to the Championship play-offs, he returned to Middlesbrough in October 2022 as a first team coach following the appointment Carrick.
Carrick is expected to be appointed at Old Trafford imminently. It’s his first role since his time at Boro came to an end at the end of last season.
After a disappointing tenth-place finish in the Championship, a root and branch review was carried out by Boro to identify areas for improvement and things that had to change.
It’s understood that the preference heading into the review was for Carrick to remain in charge at Boro this season. However, at the conclusion the decision was then made to make a change, with Carrick said to have been reluctant to accept the club’s findings and future direction of travel.
Boro instead hired Rob Edwards and despite a solid start to the new season, he left after just four months to join Wolves. Replaced by Kim Hellberg, the Swede has won five of his first nine league games, with Boro second in the Championship.
Carrick, meanwhile, has spent time working as a UEFA technical observer this season, while also carrying out media commitments with BBC and TNT. He will now return to Old Trafford where he spent 12 years as a player, and a further three as a coach.
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