{"id":281119,"date":"2026-01-12T17:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/281119\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T17:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:00:14","slug":"michael-carrick-emerges-as-favourite-to-be-manchester-united-interim-manager-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/281119\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Carrick emerges as favourite to be Manchester United interim manager \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Carrick has emerged as the favourite candidate to be Manchester United<\/a>\u2019s interim manager for the rest of the season ahead of Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r<\/a> after the interview process, with the club\u2019s executive expected to finalise the decision on Monday.<\/p>\n

While Omar Berrada, the club\u2019s chief executive, and Jason Wilcox, United\u2019s director of football, are understood to have not made a formal offer, they are leaning towards Carrick, according to sources. This follows both Carrick and Solskj\u00e6r having face-to-face discussions with the hierarchy. Berrada and Wilcox met Carrick on Thursday and Solskj\u00e6r on Saturday at the club\u2019s Carrington training ground.<\/p>\n

Solskj\u00e6r was originally viewed as the prime candidate to return to United to take up a position he held from December 2018 to March 2019, before being made permanent manager until November 2021 \u2013 but now Carrick has edged in front.<\/p>\n

Berrada and Wilcox want to give whoever is appointed the maximum time to prepare for the visit of Manchester City<\/a> to Old Trafford for the derby on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The development comes after Darren Fletcher admitted he was in the dark about his immediate future as United\u2019s caretaker manager after taking charge of the 2\u20111 FA Cup<\/a> third\u2011round defeat by Brighton on Sunday. This was his second game in temporary charge, after the 2-2 league draw at Burnley on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019ve had no discussions. I have to report tomorrow (Monday) morning to Carrington, that is all I know. I will find out tomorrow morning. I have had zero indications. All my focus has been on this [Burnley and Brighton].<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a massive responsibility to lead this club and I have given it my best and I am disappointed not to win a game. I think there are some good things there but ultimately it wasn\u2019t enough. I am more disappointed than anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FA Cup elimination means the 13-time winners have been dumped from the competition and the League Cup at the first opportunity for a first time since 1981-82 so will play only 40 games this season \u2013 their lowest number in a complete campaign in 111 years. Fletcher said: \u201cThat is where we are at. We can\u2019t hide behind that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrajanBrajan Gruda scores for Brighton against Manchester United during Sunday’s FA Cup third round match at Old Trafford. Photograph: Peter Powell\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

With United seventh on 32 points, three behind Liverpool in the fourth place that guarantees qualification, Fletcher \u2013 who stepped in after Ruben Amorim<\/a>\u2019s sacking \u2013 admitted the squad\u2019s confidence was low but urged that the season not be thrown away. \u201cYou can see that the players are fragile and they need to build themselves up because it\u2019s up to them now \u2013 they have got to respond,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cConfidence is one of the most powerful things in football. When you don\u2019t have confidence you have to dig deep \u2013 and you have to battle, grind, fight, work, win games \u2013 and then the confidence comes back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue character reveals itself in difficult times and we learned a lot about the players. They have to dig in, show they want to be part of Man United\u2019s future and ultimately if you are not, I don\u2019t think you should be here. They are experienced players, talented players and I challenge them to regroup. It\u2019s over to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone is going to come in and lead them, they need to make sure they have a lot to play for this season. This team is still good enough to achieve success this season but they have got to dig deep and find a way within themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another former United player had a good day, Danny Welbeck having a hand in Brighton\u2019s first and scoring the second, with Benjamin Sesko\u2019s late header the only response, which was his eighth goal against his former club.<\/p>\n

Fabian H\u00fcrzeler, Brighton\u2019s manager, said of Welbeck: \u201cI think to describe him best is to say that he is a role model on the pitch [and] beside it [a] great connector. He is a great goalscorer, he is there in the right moment. He missed a big chance but good goalscorers never give up, they are always ready.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Carrick has emerged as the favourite candidate to be Manchester United\u2019s interim manager for the rest of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,21937,19,17,20,140309,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-281119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-fa-cup","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-manchester-united","13":"tag-ole-gunnar-solskjaer","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115883201221249103","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}