17 Sep 2026 12:15:19
I think it's clear the club has continued to go in the wrong direction, and what is more clear is that Wilcox is making the even more problems.
Before we pull the trigger on Carrick, we've got to let Wilcox go first, so we have an experienced and competent DoF who can make the right manager decion next.
17 Sep 2026 13:00:18
Vivell.
17 Sep 2026 13:07:06
I was going to post something similar, Eric.
For me, Carrick is out of his depth, but the root of a lot of problems is Wilcox.
From what I've heard, Wilcox is a blagger. When Dan Ashworth arrived, he gave Ratcliffe honest and professional evaluations of the club: Where it was at; what they needed to do; how complex a rebuild is; and why it was difficult to put a de facto timeline on when United would be in a position to compete for titles. Wilcox undermined this by minimising problems and giving a clear, short, timeline for the club to be challenging for titles. Ratcliffe is, by all accounts, demanding and impatient, and preferred Wilcox's bluff to Ashworth's experience.
This came to a head when EtH was sacked. Ashworth wanted the club to take time in appointing a new manager and, more importantly, was explicit that they needed to hire somebody who fit with the overarching structures and systems already in place.
In other words, someone that could come in and work with what was already there to build back up slowly. Wilcox pushed for Amorim, a shiny new, exciting young manager that would bring immediate change. Ashworth argued that this would render all the work done prior to this worthless because Amorim played a completely different system. Ratcliffe sided with his pet blagger, and Ashworth had no option to quit.
Fast forward a year. Amorim doesn't have a squad capable of playing his style of football. He's at loggerheads with Wilcox and it's conceded that one of them must go. The club had actually decided to get rid of Wilcox before Amorim made his position untenable. It was even suggested that Wilcox would be replaced after things had settled post-Amorim.
Nope, Wilcox is still here. Still butting heads with people with far more experience. And, by all accounts, still calling a lot of the shots. If any one person exemplifies the Ratcliffe era, it's Wilcox. A blagger elevated far above his talents because he knows how to blow smoke up the emperor's arse.
17 Sep 2026 13:38:19
Wilcox will turn on Carrick and fire him the second Wilcox starts taking any flack in the press.
One point I will make is we don't know if the footballing leadership Wilcox, Vivell et al want certain players but are vetoed by the board. For all we know the sporting leadership wanted to buy Anderson, Bouaddi, Tielemans, Hall a Centre back and a back up striker but were told no, there's no budget.
The issues aren't Carrick fault, the sporting leaderships fault, it's very much the owners fault.
We're £1.3bn in debt, we've had over a decade of terrible sporting decisions, we've spent a billion in interest and dividends since the takeover.
Nothing changes if the fan base doesn't hit them in the pocket. If we keep spending and turning up, sponsors keep coming and they get their regeneration project. That's the cash cow, we'll pay for it.
Unless we organise and boycott nothing changes.
17 Sep 2026 15:37:55
You can blame Carrick for his lack of in game management though, he seems void of being able to change tactics within a game, City game prime example when they went down to 10 he just plugged away same thing as they worked on all week, did not even take substitutions just rearrange the play, but nope he got no plan B . That's why the likes of Keane etc were saying he not experienced enough for such a huge job.
How many times over the years you seen Jose Pep Klopp make drastic in game changes when the need arises we just go on and on, then when all else fails lump on subs in there and everywhere and hope for the best.
It's a disgrace a club of United stature play like this just rely on a piece of individual brilliance or on the break and not have the best in class manager, which Carrick would get nowhere near at this time.
17 Sep 2026 20:04:11
Carrick still picks the team and gets them to play a certain way (which is most of the time a slow possession based boring affair), which works if you're winning games (last season), but when you dish it out and the results are as bad as they are now, you should be sacked.
1 point per game. Criminal.