25 Jan 2026 22:38:33
Absolute nonsense from Keane and Neville again. Let’s take things on face value. If carrick carries on this way give him the job. All Keane/neville care about is being loved by fans from other clubs and their paycheck from sky. Great week from carrick/staff/players let’s hope it continues.
01 Feb 2026 16:32:33
From give it to Ole to give it to Michael. If Carrick wins the league this season fine, he deserves the job. He won’t so United need to do what they should have done after Ole’s temp period, choose wisely with the head not the heart.
03 Feb 2026 19:50:10
Red Man, I think there has to be a middle ground, where you make a decision that suits both the head AND the heart. Football is both a business and a passion, one cannot survive without the other.
We have to accept that the Manchester United job is totally and utterly unique to any other job in football. There is no "ideal" training, stepping stone clubs, or pathway to prepare a manager for what they face when they become Manchester United manager.
Who the right man almost certainly cannot be measured on any standard metrics, such as titles won, clubs managed, success, style of play etc.
We have to accept that the right man for Manchester United probably wouldn't be the right man for Chelsea, or City, or Arsenal or Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
We have a unique blend of things we need from a manager, they need to play an entertaining style of football, a style of football that isn't common in the modern game, a style of football that takes risks, to borrow a motto Manchester United football should be "who dares wins". They need to connect with the fans and unite the fanbase, they need to have faith in youth and develop our own players, yet blend that with bringing in the best players, ideally from within the EPL, or abroad.
It might take a former United player to be the one to get us back on track, not because they are the best manager available, but because they are the best suited to us. We are in a rebuild phase and the fans lack patience, but they will be more patient with a former hero over fancy named outsider with a shiny CV.
Many of us fans think we crave one thing, but don't understand what it is we really want. We think we want a tactical genius who'll wring every last ounce out of our squad and find a way to win every game. But the truth is we don't want a pragmatist who'll happily send Old Trafford to sleep if it means they eek out a 1-0 win, and we won't have the patience to deal win someone who'll play football like that.
Manchester United's style of play isn't nuanced, layered or overly intelligent. It's quick, daring, often simple, but very effective football. You go out there and make sure you are the hardest working team, you risk losing the game to win and in doing so you put on a show.
We don't support our club to count trophies, we support our club for the passion, for the enjoyment, for the emotional rollercoaster that hopefully ends up with unbridled joy.
I am 100% certain that both EtH and Amorim are better managers than Carrick, at the very least their CV's would back that up.
Yet neither of them have been able to get me as excited to watch my club as Carrick has in these last three games. Neither truly "got" us as a club, they set up to win, to play percentage football the best way they knew how, limit risks, maximise the chances of gaining a result. Yet even the impressive wins that they managed lacked a real gloss. We were happy with a good result, but we didn't spend every day the following week talking about excitedly.
Carrick has managed to out play Pep (with a far inferior group of players), he embarrassed Arteta at the Emirates, bloodying the nose of the champions elect, then in the game against Fulham we sae a team that over came set backs, found some fight, showed some quality, and entertained us, and gave us the high risk, high reward football that we all actually crave.
Maybe Carrick is the man to get us back to where we want to be, maybe he isn't. But I'd gladly take 2-3 years of football like we have seen over the past few weeks, just to be entertained and to truly enjoy watching my team again.
04 Feb 2026 14:11:04
Excellent post Shappy, one thing I would add to the requirements of a Manchester United Manager is a very, very strong personality and character.
I believe that given the pressure on a Manager/Head Coach that is more important than thing's such as tactical nous. A dominating personality can very often achieve more than technical knowledge, look at Sir Matt and SAF and remember that ultimately the job is about ruling, controlling and inspiring young men who are mollycoddled, spoilt, overly indulged and wealthy beyond their dreams.
There are, of course, many aspects needed to be successful as a leader but without the ability to dominate and influence I think it becomes impossible to achieve at the highest level.
07 Feb 2026 17:47:44
Stop talking sense Shappy, others might join in. One thing I will say about Carrick, he's es underrated.
08 Feb 2026 05:05:42
Oh please. take the specs off, it’s the same criteria at Real Madrid and Barcelona and a few others, why do you possibly thinks it’s only United that have severe pressure to win, win playing good football, have demanding fans, media always on there back actually in Madrid it’s probably worse from the media than at United.
Yes what you say is partly correct but to think that’s only at United just shows ignorance.
08 Feb 2026 10:58:10
Maze, me saying it's different to other jobs is not the same as me saying other jobs are easy.
Mourinho was successful at Real Madrid and is still held in high regard by the majority of their fans, yet that is not the case at United.
In terms of trophies won he was our most successful coach post SAF, yet he still failed because his style of football didn't endear him to the fans and he didn't embrace the clubs identity with trusting in youth players.
Yes Manchester United managers, just like all top clubs, the manager is expected to win major trophies and will face intense media scrutiny. But unlike other top clubs the manager is expected to do so with a specific style of football, while also do it with players from the clubs academy.
That is certainly not the case at at Real Madrid. Maybe you could make a case for Barcelona, but the difference is the Spanish press do not place the same kind of scrutiny on Barcelona as the English press do on Manchester United.
08 Feb 2026 15:19:46
Having lived in Spain for 5 years I can vouch the press are worse on Real Madrid and Barcelona and Aleti to some extent then they are in U. K. against United, if Barcelona or Madrid lose 2-3 games the hankies are out and the press slaughter them, if 3-4 games the media print on black pages like it’s a death.
Those two teams have to play with flair, even Aleti have changed this year to try play with flair because too much abuse from media about being defensive…
Your view is clouded if you think United are under more scrutiny than those clubs, it’s just not factual at all.
08 Feb 2026 18:59:59
Add Spain to Germany and Romania.
09 Feb 2026 06:09:40
GDS, I've figured his identity out, he's Karl Pilkington ???.