Manchester United top scorer and Everton legend Wayne Rooney is clear about who he thinks should be Manchester United’s next manager.
Wayne Rooney insists Manchester United must appoint Michael Carrick as the club’s next permanent boss and explains in detail why his old teammate should be given the role – in a clear warning to INEOS not to make the wrong decision.
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Carrick has done an outstanding job as interim boss at Old Trafford so far, with seven wins from his first ten games in charge, which has lifted the Red Devils to third place in the Premier League – and a Champions League place for next season is steadily approaching.
The former Manchester United midfielder’s potential path to the permanent role is actually very similar to how it developed for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, although it ultimately ended with the Norwegian being sacked. (Sporten.com his objective opinion is of course that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the best manager after Sir Alex Ferguson and that Michael Carrick went to a valuable school as his assistant)
Despite the fact that the Norwegian manager delivered a 2nd and a 3rd place in the Premier League and with that secured Champions League play, the Glazer family (who were in control alone) was always more concerned with big names and brought in players that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer didn’t want and ignored his recommendations, such as Erling Braut Haaland and Jude Bellingham. It seems that interim managers, even after they get a permanent deal, are on borrowed time, get less power and are fired more easily.
But Rooney insists that INEOS, which is responsible for the major football decisions at Old Trafford, should not think that history will repeat itself, but rather make Carrick’s interim role a permanent one.
He said: “100 percent he should get the job. I have said this. I knew this was going to happen to Michael Carrick.
“I know him very well. I know his character and personality. It needed a calm head, but someone who knows the place, and the players needed some love – and he has given them that.
“We’ve seen the players play with more quality, more united as a team, and they look like a very strong team. For me, why would you change anything?
“He has the best win percentage of any Manchester United manager after so many games. For me, he has to get the job.”
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Macheste United’s “ownership would be completely lynched”
As for the other candidates for the job, names such as Julian Nagelsmann, Oliver Glasner and Luis Enrique are high on the bookmakers, but Rooney’s former United teammate Michael Owen fully agrees that it has to be Carrick.
“I would be clearly in the camp that thinks Carrick should keep his job,” Owen told the Manchester Evening News.
“They’ve tried almost everything. And after a dozen years of trial and error, you find some who get the best out of their players, they win games and look progressive, some of the players are playing the best football they’ve played in years.
“Imagine if you got rid of Michael Carrick, just imagine that, and you brought in anybody, I don’t care who it is, a born winner – they’ve already had that kind of manager. Imagine if things start to go bad again. I mean, the ownership would have been completely lynched.
“I mean, what an idiotic… How on earth can anyone say that he should not continue? What’s the worst that can happen? You give him a two-year contract, what’s the worst that can happen? He starts next season, the first three or four months he loses every game and he is useless. Then you can get divorced. It’s not like you have to hold on to someone for ten years.”
