Man Utd: Butt makes Carrick ‘threatened to quit’ claim as sack looms – ‘I’m not taking the job if I don’t’
Manchester United legend Nicky Butt thinks head coach Michael Carrick should have ‘threatened to quit’ the club this summer.
Carrick looks to be on the brink of getting sacked as Man Utd boss following a dire start to the 2026/27 campaign.
The club legend earned the permanent manager’s job after surpassing expectations as the interim following Ruben Amorim’s sacking, with Man Utd finishing third in the Premier League and qualifying for the Champions League.
Despite this, Carrick was not sufficiently backed in the summer’s transfer window, and this has contributed to United’s embarrassing performances and results this season.
Carrick’s position should be untenable because Man Utd have only won three of their 15 games this season and sit 18th in the Premier League table.
Man Utd’s defence is their main problem, and Scholes thinks Carrick needed to be more “ruthless” with his transfer demands in the summer.
“The one thing I say about Michael, his audition last year was brilliant, wasn’t it?” Scholes said on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast.
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“Towards the end of the season, it was amazing. I just don’t think he went on from that because I think he had a lot of credit in the bank for bringing players in for what he did, but I don’t think he was ruthless enough.
“He still had the back four he’s had for five years, and everybody knows that back four is not good enough.
“So he had to then be ruthless and go after these players who aren’t good enough. I think he had the money in the bank to do that for what he did last year.
“Do you know what I mean? We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. We don’t know who’s buying players. We don’t know if he’s involved. But he had the kudos, after doing what he did, to say ‘I want two centre-halves or I want a right back.”
“He could also say ‘I’m not taking the job if I don’t get this’…”
In response, podcast co-host Butt argued that Carrick should have ‘threatened to quit’ Man Utd in the summer to get his way over transfers.
Butt added: “He could also say ‘I’m not taking the job if I don’t get this.’
“Because he’ll never lose the love of the fans and the club, but you might lose a little bit of his kudos as a manager if he keeps continuing what he does.”
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