Man Utd reach wholly predictable Carrick sack decision for ‘three key reasons’

Michael Carrick’s Manchester United have won three of 15 games this season and he remains in charge of the football club. What is going on?!

After somehow surviving beyond the 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth, which followed the 4-1 humiliation at the hands of Como, Carrick was given a three-game ‘stay of execution’ before the international break.

That’s now upon us after a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea, a 3-2 comeback win over Roma and a 4-4 draw with Aston Villa, in which his players showed fight and folly in almost equal measure.

Eddie Howe remains director of football Jason Wilcox’s preferred replacement and is ready to take the job.

We’ve heard an awful lot about Manchester United’s ‘due diligence’ in recent weeks, and there’s no doubt Howe will also have been doing his homework as what he hoped would be an extended break from football looks set to be cut short.

But he would presumably also quite like to be announced as manager at the earliest possible opportunity in the two-week international break to, y’know, talk to the staff, work with whichever players are around and get his desk drawers organised.

Instead he’s waiting for his phone to ring while the Sir Jim Ratcliffe-appointed “best in class” dally.

The Guardian report that director of football Jason Wilcox is leading the process to decide Carrick’s future in consultation with CEO Omar Berrada and will then make his recommendation to Ratcliffe.

How long should that take? A couple of hours?

Sky Sports report that they ‘plan to use the international break to fully evaluate the season so far and reassess their options’.

‘With most players away on international duty and no first-team training sessions planned in the coming days, that has bought some breathing space for a full re-evaluation of the season’, the report claims.

Unless Wilcox and Berrada are taking training sessions we have no idea why the international break grants them breathing space. This lot bloody love a ‘thorough review’.

Surely the audit should be ongoing throughout a manager’s time at a football club? Why did they not watch the game against Villa with a clear idea of what they would do win, lose or draw?

Sky Sports claim there are ‘three key reasons why United are not rushing a decision’.

‘Firstly, the supporters are not singing for him to be sacked’. Too busy singing about the owners and booing scapegoats for that.

‘Secondly, there is a feeling in the boardroom that Carrick and his coaching staff still retain the support of the players’, almost all of whom are performing way below par.

‘Thirdly, United’s bosses remain unconvinced at this stage that changing the head coach will solve the team’s problems.’

What they’re saying there is they’re not convinced they can persuade a football manager to join Manchester United who can do any better than having this group of players fighting relegation. What a damning indictment of their stewardship and Howe’s coaching skills that is.

Maybe they’ve already made the call to stick with Carrick and want to avoid a fortnight of criticism for sticking with a failing manager before his failure continues against Liverpool, no less.

But dawdling is a worse look no matter their final decision and god help them if they procrastinate before sacking Carrick before throwing Howe the hottest of hot potatoes on the eve of their clash at Anfield.

This is Manchester United’s worst-ever start to a Premier League season and no club has conceded more goals (30) in Europe’s top five leagues. Execute him already. Or don’t. Just do something other than nothing.

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