Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has spoken again about the possibility of Michael Carrick being appointed as the club’s permanent head coach after his impressive start to life at Old Trafford.
Roy Keane discusses the possibility of Michael Carrick staying on as Manchester United manager permanently (Image: (Photo by Michael Regan – The FA/The FA via Getty Images))
Roy Keane has changed his mind on Michael Carrick after his impressive start to life at Manchester United and revealed he is open to the idea of handing the interim head coach the permanent managerial job.
The 44-year-old was parachuted in mid-season to help steer the club for the remainder of the season following the abrupt end to Ruben Amorim’s tenure at United. There is a big gap in the Premier League table, and if Carrick can lead the team well, European qualification could be in the cards.
Early signs are positive, with impressive performances and results against Manchester City and Arsenal suggesting there is more to come. It remains to be seen what he can do for the remainder of the season, but Keane appears to have changed his view of the interim manager after just two games.
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“I hope they give him[a permanent job]and I hope they give it to him in the summer,” he said on Stick to Football.
This was challenged by Gary Neville, who replied, “I told you the other day, Roy…”, seemingly trying to bring up Keane’s previous opposition to the proposal. Keane interrupted and said, “I don’t think that’s the right decision, good luck.”
“Yeah, but I stand by my beliefs. I’ve said my opinion and I think he has the job. Once he gets it in the summer, it’s going to be, ‘Listen, good luck.’ But being a caretaker manager and being a United manager who’s trying to win a league title in the next two, three, four, five years, whatever it is, is a different animal.”
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“I think you can get a better manager than Carrick, absolutely. But he’s doing a good job and I think it’s perfect timing. Even if he doesn’t get the United job, this result will be like Ruud[van Nistelrooy]and he will get another job, maybe another manager in the Premiership.”
“But just because it’s going well at United doesn’t mean he’s going to do well at other clubs. He got players back. It was all a sliding door moment. It was great for him and he took advantage of it.”
Mr Keane is still unconvinced by the overall move, but while it is not a complete U-turn, it is a reversal in his belief that the job should go to Mr Carrick. The 54-year-old has been vocal about the circumstances surrounding his interim role at United and raised eyebrows when he criticized Carrick’s wife in a previous podcast episode.
Michael Carrick enjoyed a good run with Manchester United, winning two out of two games (Image: (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images))
This appears to have brought to light an old feud between the two players, but the current caretaker manager is fully focused on his job at Old Trafford. It may have taken some convincing, but wins against Man City and Arsenal certainly helped cement Carrick’s case for a permanent head coaching job.
The performance as well as the result shows the right combination of gritty determination and cutting-edge elements in attack. It may still be too early for many to judge the former midfielder given the small sample size so far, but we may have a better idea of how his side are actually performing when they face Fulham at the weekend.
But Carrick is not on a roll and is unlikely to be induced to talk about the possibility of remaining as permanent head coach. “I think it’s more about the feeling this gives us as a group,” he said after the win over Arsenal at the weekend.
“And the players, and as a club, and of course the supporters. That’s my concern, how can it bring us together and energize us in a really positive way. We’re not getting carried away. We have some big games coming up, because the next game is always a bigger game.”
“So we can’t get carried away. We have to keep improving because we have really important things coming up. It’s two big games and we need a lot of emotion, energy and confidence, but we have to be humble and understand how we got this result. That’s very important moving forward.”
