Carrick Deserves the Job: Why Only One Man Should Get It Ahead of Him

The mailbag this week offers a compelling case for Michael Carrick's appointment as Manchester United manager on a permanent basis—and a fascinating debate about who, if anyone, should leapfrog him for the role.

The Carrick Question

Since taking charge, Carrick has accumulated more points than any other manager in the Premier League—a full two ahead of Pep Guardiola, who still has a game in hand. He's achieved this with the identical squad that Ruben Amorim inherited, and that's the crucial detail here.

The criticism levelled at Carrick—notably from some quarters suggesting he hasn't got United playing like Bayern Munich, Barcelona, PSG, or Manchester City—misses a fundamental point. He's working with players who, bar Bruno Fernandes, simply aren't world-class. That he's coaxing competitive performances from this group in half a season speaks volumes about his managerial credentials.

The comparison to Vincent Kompany proves instructive. Kompany was a Premier League failure at Burnley, yet with proper resources at Bayern Munich he's transformed them into genuine contenders. Luis Enrique has been given ample time and backing to make Arsenal title challengers. Carrick deserves the same opportunity to prove himself over a full campaign.

The only managerial appointment that would trump Carrick's permanent promotion, according to supporters' reasoning, would be Luis Enrique—with the caveat that Carrick might remain on the coaching staff for a final apprenticeship before potentially reclaiming the reins when Enrique eventually moves on.

The Ole Revisionism Problem

There's also the matter of the persistent Ole Gunnar Solskjaer revisionism doing the rounds. Suggesting that appointing Carrick would represent an "Ole mistake" fundamentally misunderstands what Solskjaer brought to the club. He wasn't merely vibes and good intentions; he employed genuine tactical principles that reflected the squad he had at the time. That's not a mistake worth repeating—that's a blueprint worth building on.

Other Matters

Elsewhere in the correspondence, supporters have weighed in on Tottenham's potential relegation, the theatrical nature of goalkeeper "injuries" cluttering modern football, and the broader question of which managers are cycling through clubs at alarming rates. Forest and Spurs have both seen four managerial appointments in a single season—a damning indictment of instability at both clubs.

One correspondent also offered sincere gratitude to Liam Rosenior for what they described as possibly the funniest thing ever said in football, the wordplay on 'manager' providing layers of ironic joy that kept on giving with each retelling.