Man Utd boss Michael Carrick
Michael Carrick has come under intense pressure at Man Utd.
Mauricio Pochettino has stormed into favouritism to become the next Manchester United manager after a flurry of sizeable overnight bets completely altered the landscape of Michael Carrick’s future, and with TEAMtalk sources confirming ‘meetings will be held’ at Carrington this week to discuss the club’s future.
A woeful start to the Premier League season has left the club going into the international break in 19th place, with just eight points to their name from 10 games and being outperformed by newly-promoted trio Coventry, Ipswich and Hull City thus far.
After a calamitous performance at home to Aston Villa on Sunday – that resulted in United clawing their way back from 2-0 and 4-2 down, the latter with two injury-time goals to salvage a point, even Gary Neville has now accepted that relegation could be a possibility for a Red Devils side winless in eight Premier League games.
As a result, United’s hierarchy may feel they have little choice but to make a tough call on Carrick’s future, with the popular former star now in serious danger of the sack just a matter of months after signing his deal to become permanent manager.
But with sources revealing that a high-level Carrington meeting will take place this week to discuss whether to sack or back the struggling 45-year-old, new information has come to light on his possible successor.
For the past month, the market has been dominated by three main names in particular, with Julian Nagelsmann, Eddie Howe and Antonio Conte, the trio all under consideration.
However, amid major doubts over all three names, Pochettino‘s name has come out of almost nowhere to suddenly lead the betting after a flurry of overnight stakes.
The Argentine has long been linked with the Man Utd job, but that chance appeared to have gone over the summer when United opted for Carrick and the 54-year-old signed an extension to remain coach of the USMNT.
However, sources have long since made clear that the former Tottenham and Chelsea manager would love another crack at a top Premier League job, and he has now burst into the 5/2 favourite to become the next United boss following some serious overnight investments.
Howe (3/1) and Nagelsmann (6/1) are next in the betting, with Conte and Didier Deschamps (both 10s) next.
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Carrick reacts to latest Man Utd sack claims
Despite all that, Carrick insists he expects to be allowed the chance to battle on at Old Trafford after seeing some positive signs in Sunday’s crazy 4-4 draw against Villa.
During a somewhat tense interview on Sky Sports, Carrick was asked if he was considering his position. “I’m not,” said the 45-year-old, who was curt when Patrick Davidson said that it was clear there would be conversations about his future before United’s next game; away to Liverpool on 22 November.
“Is there?” he replied. “You’re telling me. I’m quite clear with what direction the club needs to go in, and it’s got to win games.
“We haven’t won enough games, but I expect to move forward and keep working on the things that we’ve been working on and showing a lot of the good in the game today, tighten up on a few mistakes and win football matches.”
Carrick then says he can see enough in United’s displays to give him hope for the future.
“Yeah, 100%. I think there’s more than enough,” he said. “Goals change games, and you’ve got to deal with it, and it’s part of something we have to improve on drastically, but there’s more than enough.
“We’re just making it too difficult for ourselves at the moment in certain times.”
Neville warns Man Utd over bigger issues at club
In light of those developments, Gary Neville has warned the United board that changing the manager may not alter their reality.
During an appearance on NBC Sports, the pundit explained: “You can paper over the cracks and get a new manager bounce.
“When the new manager comes in, everybody’s happy for a couple of months and all of a sudden, six months later, it happens again.
“You can keep changing the manager and thinking that’s going to be the answer. But this has been proven now over eight managers in 12 years; that’s not the answer.
“Michael could leave, Michael might stay, we don’t know; the ownership don’t have a clue what to do.
‘It’s rinse and repeat. Amorim, Ten Hag, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Carrick, Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal, David Moyes, Ralf Rangnick – some of them are world-class managers who have had success; there are a lot of promising young managers there, ex-players who know the club as well.
“None of it has worked because if you recruit badly, if you’ve got a poor performance department, poor recruitment department, you’ve not got leadership that is strong right through the spine of the football club, you will fail.
“Every organisation in the world will fail if you’ve not got an aligned leadership from top to bottom – your board and your ownership right the way through to the person who is stood on the pitch trying to play football.
“There are real issues within that football club; you’ve got people doing those jobs who have never done those jobs before in senior positions.”
Meanwhile, Roy Keane has delivered a one-word verdict on Senne Lammens’ performance against Villa on Sunday.
Rio Ferdinand has also launched into a tirade over Man Utd’s performances, explaining why watching them this season is giving him grey hair.