Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images
Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images
The national media expects Michael Carrick to be sacked.
Football loves drama, and let’s face it, Manchester United have been at the centre of a soap opera over the past decade.
The problem is that the same old storyline is running on repeat.
Stage one: Hire a manager
Stage two: Fans get excited
Stage three: Results tank
Stage four: Manager gets fired
Manchester United are currently at stage three.
There is a push from the national media to get Manchester United to ‘stage four’ and sack Michael Carrick, to begin the next chapter.
United’s next Premier League game is already being dubbed ‘El Sackico’, with both Manchester United and Tottenham’s managers under pressure.
They are baying for blood. The phrase ‘Michael Carrick sack’ has featured on countless news sites across the web.
But Manchester United fans don’t feel the same way yet.
‘I don’t think that’s the answer’, one Manchester United supporter wrote on TalkingPoints about the possibility of firing Carrick.
United rescued a draw with Fulham at the weekend. This staves off the vultures in the immediate sense – but clearly there is still reason for Michael Carrick to be worried.
After the Tottenham game, United travel to Leeds before facing Bournemouth and Chelsea in October. It is a run of tricky fixtures.
Those games could turn the club’s season around in a good sense, or they could spell the end for Carrick.
We will soon find out, but we have seen it unravel before and honestly, it won’t be a surprise if it does once again.
Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim have all been sacked mid-season, and it’s impossible not to see the signs, and fear that Michael Carrick is sleepwalking down the same path once again.
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Manchester United fans don’t want what the media wants
While the media are loving Manchester United’s struggles and the possible inevitability of Michael Carrick eventually getting fired, supporters do not feel the same way.
Manchester United fans want Manchester United to succeed, and even if fans have doubts about Carrick – they will take no pleasure in his demise.
That is where the disparity with the national press comes in.
United might eventually end up sacking Carrick, and it won’t be pretty. But while the media treat it as a game, fans will be in mourning for the death of another project once full of hope.
The real scrutiny should be on Ineos, who many would agree have set Carrick up to fail with a below-par, minimum required recruitment effort in the transfer window.