What Michael Carrick said when asked if he’d been ‘sold short’ by Man United transfer business

Man Utd were dumped out of the Carabao Cup in embarrassing fashion as they threw away a two-goal lead to lose to Brighton at Old Trafford.

Michael Carrick said the blame for Manchester United’s dismal start to the season was on him rather than the club’s executives for handing him a squad that might be ill-equipped to reach the targets inside Old Trafford this season.

United spent just £155million on first-team players this summer and were only the 10th biggest spenders in the Premier League, despite chief executive Omar Berrada setting a target of winning the title within the next two years.

The overhaul of the midfield has left United short in other areas, while two new signings, in Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans, struggled in Wednesday’s desperate defeat to Brighton.

United led the Carabao Cup tie 2-0 after just 10 minutes, but conspired to throw the game away in a result that could be damaging for Carrick’s long-term future at Old Trafford.

But he was asked after the game whether he had been “sold short” with the squad he had been given this season, only to take responsibility himself rather than point the finger of blame at Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox.

“No, no, listen. The team’s on me, so when we win, people say I’m doing a good job, and if we don’t win or we don’t get results, then a lot of it’s on me,” said Carrick.

“So I accept that, I’m not hiding away from any of that. That is what it is.”