MICHAEL CARRICK is one of the most intelligent footballers I know, so really didn’t need telling he wasn’t going to be Manchester United’s next manager.
But the fact United have brought in Ralf Rangnick as an interim to replace the interim, before they get the man they really want, is ridiculous.
I’ve never heard anything so stupid in my life, whichever way you look at it.
And then we hear that if Rangnick wins the Champions League, he could end up staying as manager after all, rather than a couple of years as a consultant, director or whatever.
So the interim manager could become the full-time manager, which means the manager they want full-time now might not be the one they want full-time in six months.
If you’re not confused by all that, I certainly am! And we’re talking one of the biggest clubs in the world here. It’s crazy.
If they wanted Mauricio Pochettino, as we were led to believe, then there were ways and means to make it happen now.
And if they had to wait for him, they shouldn’t have pushed Michael aside and put someone above him for a few months. What does that say? We’ve got no faith in you?
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I know Carrick very well. I took him to West Ham when he was 12 and was about an hour away from signing him for Portsmouth, too, but I’ll come back to that.
The thing is, he knows United inside out. He’s got a great footballing brain — you don’t play the game how he did unless you understand it.
If they needed to bring in anyone before a manager was appointed, then get a coach alongside him, because they were a man down after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer left.
They should have just gone for someone experienced, but let Michael run the show until then.
He wouldn’t be the first to get a chance and then, who knows, possibly go on to be a great manager himself.
People would have looked back on that and given him a call, had he done a decent job. No chance of that now.
I actually think United missed a trick in not going for Antonio Conte when he was free, because the writing was on the wall for a long time with Ole.
I’m not having this stuff about Conte only ever staying at clubs for a couple of years either.
If you’re Manchester United manager, there aren’t many places you go upwards after that.
Daniel Levy will have seen the danger, that’s why he got him in so quickly at Spurs. He’ll have known that when he got rid of Nuno Espirito Santo.
It will be interesting to see the reaction if Michael gets a result at Chelsea today. That’d be a tough act for Rangnick to follow.
I’ve always had a lot of time for Carrick and when I was at Portsmouth, I had a deal in place to sign him from West Ham for about £2.4million.
It was all agreed and he was actually halfway down the motorway for a medical when I got a phone call from his agent saying Spurs wanted him.
Jacques Santini was manager at the time but didn’t have a clue about it. Levy was the one who did the deal.
Daniel told me when he saw I wanted Michael, having worked with him at West Ham, there must be something about him and at the price, it was worth taking a chance.
So Michael and his agent turned around at the next exit, went to Spurs and from there he ended up going to United.
What a player he was too, he controlled the game from the middle, saw everything, could hit a pass and dictated the pace.
So don’t tell me he doesn’t have the nous to be a boss, because he does.
But whether it’s him or Rangnick, a club like United shouldn’t have been talking interims in the first place.
I never got a call from them when I was a manager, but if I had it’s a very difficult one to turn down.
If they made an offer, 99 per cent in the world would jump on a plane, get in the car, whatever it took — but you’d be there the next day.
It’s not an easy one at the minute, but what a club, what a job, what an incredible opportunity.
I’m just so disappointed they didn’t stick with Michael until then.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
