Michael Carrick has won his first two games as Manchester United’s new head coach, but Paul Scholes still doesn’t think the former Red Devils midfielder will be the manager long-term.
Michael Carrick has made an immediate impact as Manchester United’s new head coach (Image: Zohaib Alam – MUFC, Manchester United via Getty Images)
Paul Scholes believes Manchester United’s past experience with Ole Gunnar Solskjær will make the club reluctant to hire Michael Carrick as their long-term head coach despite his strong start in the hot seat.
Carrick, previously a member of Solskjaer’s coaching team, returned to Old Trafford earlier this month on a deal until the end of the season after Ruben Amorim was sacked by the Red Devils. The former Middlesbrough manager, who left the Championship side by mutual consent in the summer, made an impact in the role immediately after taking over, defeating Manchester City and Arsenal in his first two games.
United’s remarkable turnaround in both performance and results under Carrick has already fueled speculation that he could be a serious candidate to take over the head coaching position on a long-term deal.
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But Scholes believes United will remain “scarred” by their past experience of handing Solskjær the permanent managerial job after an excellent interim period, which is likely to affect Carrick’s chances of following suit.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast, the former United midfielder said of Carrick: “He’s in this job now and it’s been so bad over the past year that I can’t imagine it getting any worse, so there’s not a lot of pressure while he’s interim manager. When you take the job full-time, for example at the beginning of next season, all of a sudden you have to win games quickly.”
“They’re probably a little bit hurt by the Ole[Gunnar Solskjær]incident, which they probably would have been if it hadn’t been for the Ole incident.
Paul Scholes doesn’t think Carrick will stay at United beyond the end of the season (Image: YouTube/The Good, the Bad and the Football Podcast)
“But if Michael has to play against Thomas Tuchel in the summer, for example, if you’re thinking about coaching a big club and winning big prizes, you can’t really match that because there can only be one winner.”
Nicky Butt agrees and believes Carrick will know the score as he is unlikely to become Manchester United’s long-term head coach. “Michael is smart and intelligent, so I think he will understand the job he is given,” Butt added.
“I can’t imagine Michael ever being on TV…if he’s third or something, it could be his last game…but until then, he knows he has a contract until the end of the season to move the club in the right direction for the next manager.
Thomas Frank is under huge pressure at Spurs and Scholes believes Carrick could slot him in for the job at his former club (Image: Getty Images)
“He’ll know that, and I know Michael very well. He’s not going to be there and he’s not stupid enough to say, ‘Yeah, I want that job,’ because that’s not what he signed up for.
“If he wants to remain in football as a manager at another club, if he does well here, the next job will be a good one.”
Scholes also hinted that Carrick could end up managing Tottenham Hotspur, his other former club, saying: “It could be something like a Tottenham manager. That wouldn’t be a surprise to me.”
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