Man Utd: Champions League football all but secured, yet big decisions loom
But before all this, a decision needs to be made about Carrick.
Many feel that a return to the Champions League (his side were predicted to be in the bottom half of the table after the first two games against Manchester City and Chelsea) would be enough to secure him a full-time contract.
Getting rid of Carrick, the argument goes, would be the riskiest option.
But there are two schools of thought.
First, Carrick gets the job because he deserves the chance, things go wrong next season and the United hierarchy are mocked for following the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer model – something no coach has done since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure in 2013, although this belittles the Norwegian’s achievement of consecutive top-four finishes.
The other is that Carrick was replaced by a more experienced manager who struggled to adapt, and then the hierarchy was accused of trying to fix something that wasn’t broken.
This decision is not made easier by the knowledge that Paris St-Germain are confident that prominent candidate Luis Enrique will sign a new deal with them, and even if he does not, they will demand a fee from the world’s highest-paid teams to switch clubs.
The practicality of trying to sign someone like Julian Nagelsman, whose contract with Germany expires in 2028 and who could feature in the World Cup final a day after Manchester United’s first pre-season match against Wrexham in Helsinki, makes this an unsustainable option.
Andoni Iraola is much-loved but as Tottenham discovers Thomas Frank, who is on his way to United in 2024, managing a progressive, smaller Premier League club is a completely different world to dealing with the biggest ones.
No one knew how Carrick would fare when he was asked to take over until the end of the season. But one thing United’s power brokers were sure of was that they would not be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the job he was taking on.
Carrick met Sir Jim Ratcliffe last week for a cup of tea and a chat. Time will tell how important this beer is.
Barring an unimaginable series of results, Old Trafford will host Champions League football again next season.
However, it seems that the most important work of those who manage the club is about to begin.
