Michael Carrick is the favourite to be Man Utd manager next season but the club’s former midfielder has so far been quiet on his long-term hopes.
Michael Carrick has given the strongest indication yet that he wants to stay on as Manchester United head coach past the end of the season and hopes his winning run will strengthen his chances of getting the job on a long-term basis.
The 44-year-old was appointed in January on a contract until the end of the season, with United conducting what insiders describe as a “thorough process” to find a permanent head coach in the summer. A run of six wins and a draw from seven games has thrust Carrick to the top of the shortlist.
The former Middlesbrough boss, who had been out of work for seven months after leaving the Riverside Stadium before accepting the SOS from Old Trafford, has remained coy on his chances of keeping the job and has been relatively non-committal on whether he would want to stay on.
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But a remarkable run of form that has lifted United to third ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Newcastle has made the question unavoidable, and Carrick accepts it is now going to be one he has to face regularly if the results keep coming.
“It’s going to be every week, isn’t it this? There’s no getting away from the situation, of course,” Carrick said. “I love being here. I love doing what I’m doing.
“I’ve said it from the start, I’m not making any decisions for short-term or quick fixes. I think it’s the responsibility, however long I’m here, to make decisions that are the best for the football club in the long term.
“Winning games helps and the boys are doing great with that. We’ll just have to see where it ends up.”
Carrick left Boro in the summer after three years with the Championship club. He led them from 21st to the play-offs in his first season in charge but wasn’t able to mount a promotion charge after that.
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He had ventured into TV work after that and seemed unclear whether he wanted a return to the pressures of management, having shown little interest in jobs that became available before Ruben Amorim was sacked.
The lure of Old Trafford proved too difficult to turn down, and now that he’s back in the hot seat, he is talking like someone who sees his future there.
“I enjoy working with players,” he said. “I enjoy trying to help players. The responsibility here is the whole football club and I enjoy it. It’s a privilege to be able to influence certain things, but I enjoy working with players and helping them.
“Whether that’s their career, whether that’s for the team, whether that’s development week to week, it’s something I just really enjoy and am passionate about. I never really lost it, to be honest, whether it’s managing, head coach, whatever role that is, it comes down to working with players and people really to get the best out of people and backroom staff and supporters.
“It’s something I like seeing, that development and connection growing. So, whether that’s skills or technical skills or whether you see the group coming together, like [on Sunday against Palace] from a setback to be able to overcome that, it’s nice when you are part of that.”