Michael Carrick has been sacked by Manchester United, with former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino waiting in the wings as his successor.
Just 173 days on from Carrick being given a two-year contract, having guided United to a third-placed finish and back into the Champions League as an interim, the decision to fire him was ratified at a crucial board meeting in Monaco on Wednesday.
Carrick arrived at United’s training ground at 7.50am this morning and was dismissed. He left at 10.18am, less than two and a half hours later.
In a statement released at 10.37am, Carrick’s sacking was confirmed. United’s statement read: ‘After a disappointing start to the season, the club has come to the extremely difficult conclusion that a change is necessary in order to achieve our ambitions.
‘Michael is, and always will be, a Manchester United legend. Just as he did as a player, he has conducted himself with the highest standards of dedication and professionalism throughout his time back with the club. His leadership and achievements last season will always be fondly remembered.’
Sources close to United say the club’s leadership believe their squad of players is far better than the performances and results under Carrick have indicated. They gave the under-fire manager a chance to turn things around against Chelsea, Roma and Aston Villa but ultimately felt the team were not on the right path.
Michael Carrick – pictured arriving at Carrington on Thursday morning – has been sacked after Manchester United’s disastrous start to the season
Carrick was seen leaving the training ground less than two and a half hours later
USMNT boss Mauricio Pochettino is ready to take over as United’s new manager
Minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, along with the Glazer family, who dialled in virtually from the United States, chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox reached a verdict in the south of France yesterday, all while Carrick remained in limbo back in Manchester.
Carrick took charge of training on Tuesday morning after it had emerged that Berrada and Wilcox were heading to Monaco to recommend his sacking and did so again on Wednesday when it transpired United were closing in on an agreement to bring in Pochettino as his successor.
The current United States national team manager reached a verbal agreement with Man United to take over on Wednesday. United then made a formal approach to US Soccer shortly after, with the club having to trigger the 54-year-old Argentine’s £7million release clause.
The final nail in Carrick’s coffin came in Sunday’s dramatic 4-4 draw against Aston Villa, which saw United stuck in the relegation zone in 18th position.
The handling of Carrick’s departure has been particularly damning on Ineos and the shot-callers at United, not least given he was given no show of public support when he continued in post following an emergency board meeting after the 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth.
A defeat at Chelsea, in which Lisandro Martinez badly let his manager down by getting sent off, and a win over Roma to go with the draw against Villa, was not enough of a sign that it will turn around for the board to keep faith.
With Carrick’s departure, it pushes the compensation paid out to coaching staff and executives over the last three years under minority owner Ratcliffe and Ineos close to £30million. Buying Pochettino out of his contract with the US national team will cost another £7m. Adding his large coaching staff will take millions more.
Matchgoing supporters will be sad to see Carrick go and made those feelings clear in recent games when he was loudly cheered at the end of matches, with the ire and frustration levelled against players and executives.
Optimism heading into the campaign was sky high given that no team in the Premier League performed better than Carrick’s side between January and May.
But that level of success and dominance has long since evaporated after a shambolic start to the current campaign – and it has cost the 45-year-old his job just five months after the ink dried on a new deal.
It has been a season in which United won just three matches, one of which came against Azerbaijani minnows FK Sabah, and are yet to keep a clean sheet in the league all season.
A season in which club captain Bruno Fernandes publicly questioned his manager’s tactics and Martinez eviscerated the hierarchy for hanging Carrick and the players out to dry. Fernandes was even dropped for the first time in five years for the Bournemouth humiliation.
Questions will continue to be asked of those upstairs, with Berrada and Wilcox now on to their third permanent manager this year alone and their fourth in their tenure having burned through Erik ten Hag, Ruben Amorim and Carrick since taking control of football operations in February 2024.
It means Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox (pictured on Thursday morning) need a third manager this year as INEOS’ running of the football club comes under scrutiny once more
Sunday’s draw with Aston Villa proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the United boss
Gary Neville believes Michael Carrick will be ‘disgusted’ by his Manchester United players
Amorim lasted 14 months in the role, even in spite of embarrassing defeats to the likes of League Two Grimsby Town, but for Carrick it was a dream job that would run until early November and end in him being unceremoniously dumped at the training ground by Wilcox.
Carrick vowed after the Villa draw that he wouldn’t walk away and took on a spiky side when quizzed on his future by reporters. After a week of shame against the board, he has finally been put out of his misery.
Carrick leaves with a record of 14 wins – 12 of which came last season, prior to being made permanent manager – six draws and eight defeats, including exiting this season’s Carabao Cup at the first hurdle against Brighton at Old Trafford.
Now it looks set to be Pochettino’s challenge to turn this massively underperforming squad around, something former United star Gary Neville believes is a mightily difficult task given the ‘unprofessional’ squad the new man will inherit.
‘They’ve teased him, haven’t they? They’ve conned [Carrick] for a few months. They have, they’ve conned him,’ Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast recently.
‘Honestly, he would never say this publicly because he’s got class. I can say it for him though.
‘He’ll look at those players with disgust. Some of them, he’ll be disgusted with some of those players.
‘A few of them aren’t that professional. I live in Manchester. Some of them aren’t that professional. So I’ve got no time for them.
‘There’s a few of them that don’t go to bed at the right time, don’t eat the right things, don’t think about Manchester United every single minute of every day, and aren’t living and breathing this football club as they should be – and as professionals should.
‘Why? Because it’s gone to their heads. They are nothing, some of those players.
‘He’s not been able to get a tune out of them and they’ve turned on him. I know that because if Bruno has turned on him publicly, with that little statement, imagine what they’re like behind the scenes.
‘If that’s your captain saying that, imagine what they’re saying in the dressing room behind closed doors when no one’s listening. That’s horrific.’
