Michael Carrick not feeling extra pressure from ex-Man Utd players turned pundits
By Simon Peach, Press Association Chief Football Writer
New head coach Michael Carrick insists outspoken former Manchester United players like Roy Keane and Gary Neville do not add extra pressure to his job.
This has been a fraught fortnight at Old Trafford, where Ruben Amorim’s 14-month reign came to an acrimonious end and Darren Fletcher took temporary charge before the club turned to another ex-Red Devils midfielder.
Carrick has been placed in charge for the remainder of the season and kicks off his reign with Saturday’s derby against Manchester City, when Neville and Keane are due to be working on Sky Sports’ coverage.
In familiar surroundings 🏡 pic.twitter.com/qoQ60cwggt
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 13, 2026
The pair spoke at length this week about their former team-mate’s appointment on the Stick to Football podcast, with Neville saying the club cannot consider keeping him beyond the end of the season regardless of how well he does.
Forthright Keane questioned the coaching set-up before saying Carrick’s wife Lisa had a “bit of a big mouth” and joking she could be do the team talk – seemingly referring to her swiftly deleted tweet about the former United captain 12 years ago.
“They’re not putting more pressure on me,” the new head coach said of high-profile former United players in the media. “I don’t feel that.
“I think it’s just part of it. The role, I understand it, I understand there’s plenty of opinions around and some are positive, some not so much.
“But I think in some ways, for me, in terms of you saying about putting pressure, it’s totally irrelevant in terms of me and how I go to work and what I focus on.
“I kind of know already what we want to improve on and how we want to work with the players.
“There’s a lot of opinions, a lot can be said. It’s the way of the world. I’m not going to pay too much attention to most of that.
“I think it’s not for me to do that. I think for me and the players and the staff, it’s a focus on how we’re going to succeed, really, and that’s our job. That’s our responsibility.
“That’s what we’re focusing on, (where) our minds should be at. It’s doing what we can for this club.”
Asked about the personal pot-shot from Keane, the United head coach said: “Honestly, it didn’t bother me. Didn’t bother me.”
Carrick’s focus is on the Manchester derby, having been handed the reins on Tuesday and taken training for the first time the following day.
Thursday was another busy day at Carrington, where co-owners Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Joel Glazer and Avram Glazer joined chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox for the club’s executive committee meeting.
“I’ve spoken to Jason an awful lot,” Carrick said. “I’m working closely with Jason and Omar as well. Over the last few days we’ve spoken a lot, as you can imagine.
“The ownership group were in and around it. It was nice to see them and meet them yesterday and have a small chat with them.
“They’re taking care of business in some ways, but we were able to share a few things. They wished us all the very best and it was good to see them.”
👊 "Focus, concentration and a real drive to improve the team and results."
Michael conducted his first press conference in charge of the Reds earlier today 🎙️⤵️— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 16, 2026
Carrick takes over a side sat seventh in the Premier League, just three points off the Champions League places.
Asked if the leadership team had stated expectations, Carrick said: “No, not in terms of it has to be this way or that way.
“We want to be near the top…we want to be top of the league, I mean that’s pretty obvious to say.
“We’ve got to take some small steps towards that, and European football obviously would be a step forward and we have got to keep pushing.”
