Michael Carrick has been appointed interim head coach at Manchester United following the sacking of Ruben Amorim.
Carrick has been appointed United interim boss(Image: )
A new year but some very famliar faces at Manchester United. 13 days into 2026 and there have already been three different men at the helm of England’s biggest club. Michael Carrick is the latest to occupy the Old Trafford hotseat, with former interim boss Darren Fletcher moving back to his role as Under-18 coach.
Including interim bosses, seven different managerial appointments have been made at Old Trafford in little over four years, a list bookended by Carrick. There’s every chance an eighth will be added come the summer, but for now it is Carrick who will have the chance to show his credentials.
A manager sacked by Championship side Middlesbrough just seven months ago was always going to jump at the chance to manage United, but the fixture list has thrown up something of a hospital pass for Carrick. A Manchester derby followed by a trip to the league leaders leaves no time for him to settle in. United need a spark and with the halfway point of the Premier League season disappearing in the rear-view mirror they need one fast.
The Premier League table will tell you United are still in with a shot of Champions League qualification, but the truth is they have blown their opportunity to grab the fight for a top four – or five – finish by the lapels and prove they mean business. The harsh reality is any team that draws at home to Wolves, West Ham and Bournemouth, having led in all three, and loses to 10-man Everton doesn’t deserve to be dining at Europe’s top table.
But anyone looking for a crumb of comfort as United look to navigate their way through yet another period of crisis need only look at Carrick’s previous spells as a manager.
Solskjaer waved goodbye at Vicarage Road in November 2021, having won just 3 of his previous 11 games, yet Carrick’s promotion to interim boss saw an immediate upturn in results with wins against Villarreal and Arsenal sandwiched by a creditable draw away at Chelsea. While it’s a small sample size to work with, the way in which United’s season unravelled under Ralf Rangnick and the turbulence prior to Carrick’s appointment shines a light on the impressive work he did in such a short time.
He enjoyed a similar new-manager bounce during his time at Middlesbrough. Defeat in his opening game was followed by a run of 15 wins from 19 league games, with relegation worries exchanged for promotion hopes in a matter of months.
From a team that looked lost under Chris Wilder, suddenly Boro were on an upward trajectory. The atmosphere at the Riverside was electric and there was a real sense of unity between players and fans, something that had been missing for far too long. Middlesbrough’s Chuba Akpom finished as top scorer in the division and was named Championship Player of the Season, with Boro finishing in fourth – not bad for a team embroiled in a relegation battle when Carrick arrived.
Unfortunately for Carrick, he was unable to build on what had been a superb start to life at the Riverside. Defeat in the play-offs in 2022/23 was followed by near misses in the next two seasons, and it was clear the former midfielder had reached the end of the road on Teesside last summer.
Opposition sides became wise to Boro’s play, with no real urgency to their attack and a manager who struggled to impact matches with in-game changes.
United fans may shudder reading that, given what went before Carrick, but the impact he made at Boro in such a short space of time cannot be ignored.
If United want a manager who can pick a dressing room up and spark an upturn in results, then they might just have the right man. Should that scenario come to pass, the real question will be what they do in the summer.