Club have started process of appointing new coach, according to Gary Neville
Manchester United will be pressured to appoint Michael Carrick as permanent head coach if form remains on the up until the end of the season, but the club have made clear they will not make a decision based on the interim coach’s results.
United appointed Carrick as interim in January after Ruben Amorim was sacked and Darren Fletcher had a brief stint in charge. The club’s former midfielder has now won five of his six games in charge.
And quite an impressive run it has been, with big victories over Manchester City and Arsenal followed by rising up to the challenge against the likes of Fulham, Tottenham and Everton. Even the draw against West Ham was a test of their mettle, as they salvaged a draw late in the game to maintain the 44-year-old interim coach’s unbeaten run.
The performances have also been good, with youngster Kobbie Mainoo returned to the fold and flourishing alongside Bruno Fernandes and summer signings Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha. Benjamin Sesko is yet to start a game under Carrick, but has now scored five goals in the 44-year-old’s six games in charge.
United have also kept three clean sheets in their last six, compared to just two in their previous 21.
But pundit and club legend Gary Neville is not convinced that the performance should make the club decide to stick with Carrick. Neville’s stance has always been for United to appoint an experienced elite coach, although his two recommended options in Thomas Tuchel and Carlo Ancelotti are no longer available after agreeing extensions with the England and Brazil national teams respectively.
“Manchester United have to pursue another manager right now around the fact that you don’t know how the results are going to go,” Neville insisted this week.
“But little things like Thomas Tuchel re-signing with England does start to take away the options for Manchester United and they don’t harm Michael’s chances of getting the job.
“If he gets United into the Champions League there will be a lot of fever around that he should be appointed. I’m not against him being appointed, I love him to bits.
“But I think United should go for the best class of manager available. They’ve had young and inexperienced managers in the last two picks.
“Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has come in before as an ex-player and that didn’t work in the end. So I feel removing as much risk as possible is the right option.”
Neville then mentioned he had reached out to club officials to confirm their official stance on the managerial appointment.
“I have to say I thought their answer was pretty good,” Neville said. “They said they’ve actually begun the process now, starting to look for another manager, which I thought right.
“That’s good to hear because you need to plan for everything. They’ve started the process of speaking to and looking at other managers, building all the sorts of data and analysing who should be the next manager of the football club.
“But what they’ve said is they’re not going to be bounced into – irrespective of wins or draws or losses on the pitch in this next couple of months – making an appointment. They’re going to wait until towards the end of the season.”
