It has been a wild couple of weeks at Man Utd and the Manchester Evening News has been there every step of the way. This is how it all unfolded.
It’s rarely quiet at Old Trafford but the first two weeks of 2026 have been explosive even for the standards of Manchester United. Michael Carrick is the club’s third head coach of the year already.
Ruben Amorim’s dramatic end and Darren Fletcher’s caretaker spell have led to the appointment of Carrick until the end of the season and the challenge that now awaits is to steer the club back into European competition.
That won’t be easy and the start is a daunting one, but there is now a sense of calm at Carrington once more. This is the story of a remarkable two weeks and how United got to the point where 44-year-old Carrick was summoned from a beach in Barbados to take charge of the first-team.
How Amorim sabotaged his own reign
There was frustration bubbling away at Carrington on the second day of 2026, but no sense of the explosion that was about to go off at the club’s training ground.
The failure to beat Wolves a few days earlier had stuck in the craw of key executives, particularly given Amorim had gone back to his favoured back three formation. Wolves boss Rob Edwards revealed post-match he had always expected Amorim to do just that, while the United head coach said he had wanted to match up the visitors.
That negative approach set alarm bells ringing again. Amorim had gone to a back four and a more attacking ethos against Bournemouth and Newcastle, but reverted to type for a game against a team that, at that point, were still to win in the Premier League.
When director of football Jason Wilcox spoke to Amorim about it at a pre-planned meeting on the morning of Friday, January 2, the head coach “blew up”. He hinted at the unhappiness in his press conference ahead of the game and then cancelled a planned broadcast interview.
Two days later, he used the final question of his post-match press conference to essentially air his grievances with Wilcox in public. If it was a power play, it was never going to succeed.
Amorim pulled into Carrington the next morning well aware he was about to be put out of his misery. His dismissal was about results, but it was also about his behaviour, not just in that showdown with Wilcox, but in the public criticisms he had aired against some players as well.
Get me a United great
There is a feeling that Amorim never quite ‘got’ United. He never understood the club’s values or bought into the tradition of the type of football they should play. He certainly didn’t sound like a United manager at times.
It has been suggested that the 40-year-old was taken aback by the sheer scale of the task at hand and the noise that reverberates around the club. He called out people paying too much attention to pundits in his final press conference, but he has never had to deal with a struggling super club before and the spotlight will always be harsh.
It’s something Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag had to come to terms with as well, so with only 17 games left to salvage something from this season, United couldn’t afford to appoint someone who needed time to get their feet under the table. That is why Wilcox looked to the days of United’s past.
There was some schadenfreude at a shortlist of Carrick, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ruud van Nistelrooy, but the nostalgia was deliberate. All three understand the club and are used to the noise. There will be no adaptation period required.
In what became a straight shootout between Carrick and Solskjaer, the former’s knowledge of a group of players who are yet to click together this season impressed Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada. He is also a progressive appointment whose best days as a coach might be ahead of him, whereas it feels like Solskjaer’s best days in management are in the rearview mirror.
Berrada and Wilcox also felt Carrick could work in a collaborative structure that Ineos are putting together at Old Trafford. He is a hands-on coach, whereas Solskjaer’s experience at United is more managerial, although that is partly due to the absence of a clear structure when he was in charge between December 2018 and November 2021.
What comes next
Carrick’s coaching pedigree helped him win the race and it didn’t harm his cause that he had made an impact with some of these players as well. His three-game stint as a caretaker in 2021 is remembered fondly, but he also led much of the training when Solskjaer was in charge, along with Kieran McKenna.
He is still a popular figure with some members of that squad who remain at Old Trafford and his ability to quickly assemble a coaching staff has gone down well. In particular, the appointment of experienced No. 2 Steve Holland is considered a wise move.
For a while under Ineos, it felt like the sight of Holland pulling into Carrington was inevitable, alongside former England boss Sir Gareth Southgate. However, interest in Southgate has waned, and Holland’s appointment isn’t directly related.
Instead, the search is now underway for a permanent head coach, although there is intrigue surrounding the removal of the word ‘interim’ or ‘caretaker’ from Carrick’s job title. His job is simply that of head coach, albeit on a contract that runs until the end of the 2025/26 season. Solskjaer was named caretaker manager until the end of the 2018 season, and Rangnick was the interim manager in November 2021.
United stresses that those decisions were made under a different regime, and the decision not to use the words ‘interim’ or ‘caretaker’ is due to the length of time he will be in charge. The process to appoint a permanent head coach will be a thorough one, but Carrick will inevitably be in the picture. The results will dictate the strength of his case.
Day one is done
Carrick, Holland, Jonathan Woodgate, Jonny Evans and Travis Binnion were in place at Carrington on Wednesday morning to welcome the players. There were “good vibes” around the place, as one source put it.
Plenty of the squad already know Carrick and some know Holland as well. Carrick’s career means he commands respect from the squad. He held a relatively brief introductory team meeting on Wednesday morning before a first training session on the grass which was watched by Wilcox.
Gym work followed for many of the squad, but there were no significant changes implemented by Carrick on day one. Although club media filmed some of the session, there was a desire not to reveal too much.
There will be two more sessions before City arrive on Saturday and the Carrick era truly begins.
