Gary Neville: Man Utd can’t consider keeping Michael Carrick at helm post season
By Simon Peach, Press Association Chief Football Writer
Gary Neville says Manchester United cannot consider keeping Michael Carrick as head coach beyond the end of the season, as Roy Keane called on his former club to go for the “best of the best”.
Ruben Amorim’s sacking last week – after 14 underwhelming and increasingly acrimonious months – saw Darren Fletcher temporarily parachuted in before another ex-Red Devils midfielder took the reins.
Carrick was named United head coach for the remainder of the season on Tuesday and is now gearing up for Saturday’s eagerly-anticipated derby clash with Manchester City at Old Trafford.
The 44-year-old is tasked with trying to lead the club to Champions League qualification and Neville is “quite emphatic” that his old team-mate cannot be given the job beyond this campaign, even if he flourishes.
“I hope he does really well,” Neville said on Stick to Football. “There cannot be any consideration that Michael takes the job beyond this season, for Michael and for the club.
“If he wins every game, look, we could be sat here in the season where he’s done unbelievably well, and we’re always thinking the fans are up and they’re in the Champions League places, fifth or whatever. It could happen if there’s a good run and we could all be getting swayed with it.
“I honestly feel like (you have to look at others) at the end of the season when you’ve got (Mauricio) Pochettino, (Thomas) Tuchel and (Carlo) Ancelotti.
“I’ve said Ancelotti. I just feel purely because he’s 66 years of age, he’s got probably the best job in the world right now. He’s probably got one job left at club level.
“If there’s one person who’s got the patience, the composure, the experience of the Premier League.”
United decided to give former Middlesbrough boss Carrick the short-term role in order to allow director of football Jason Wilcox to undergo a thorough recruitment process over the coming months.
Former captain Keane mentioned Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone and Paris St Germain head coach Luis Enrique as potential options and snapped back when Neville suggested the latter was unrealistic.
“But isn’t that bizarre, we’re talking about options and you’re ruling people out,” Keane said. “But United should be thinking ‘let’s try and get the best of the best’.”
Keane was also forthright when it came to the mentality of players and staff potentially being influenced by outside noise, including from former United players like him.
“I could give you a list of players here who played for Man United over last 20-30 years,” he said. “Deep down I might think ‘they’re not really top players’, but they’ve been able to deal with playing for Man United.
“They’ve rolled their sleeves up, they’ve ended up playing one, two, three hundred games for Man United because they’ve been able to deal with all of that.
“Technically, you might go ‘he’s a lucky boy here to play for Man United’ but part of the challenge is to deal with the expectation of ‘you’re expected to win every week’ and Carrick goes in there now. You embrace that.
“Don’t be hostage to the past and worry about what the previous (have done). That’s not on this team but you have to go out and embrace it, lads.”
