Steve Bruce claims ex-Man Utd figure who was ‘slaughtered’ already proved what Michael Carrick would ‘face’

Manchester United legend Steve Bruce has said one of Old Trafford’s haunting figures showed the scale of the challenge awaiting Michael Carrick at the club.

Michael Carrick has come under criticism over the Red Devils’ 2026-27 Premier League campaign after Manchester United have won only once in the league.

The Red Devils languish in 13th place in the Premier League table and Man Utd have only notched up seven points from a possible 21 in their opening league fixtures.

Steve Bruce linked up with Wayne Rooney and the 65-year-old former United defender placed the spotlight on former interim Red Devils boss Ralf Rangnick.

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Ralf Rangnick took charge at Old Trafford during the 2021-22 Premier League season after Michael Carrick had briefly served as caretaker manager. The 68-year-old German manager was a short-term solution between Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking and Erik ten Hag’s arrival at the club in 2022.

Rangnick was expected to remain in a consultancy role after his interim Man Utd spell, but the former RB Leipzig boss instead became the Austria manager. The former Red Devils figure warned United fans of the scale of the challenge for Erik ten Hag after he famously claimed that the club needed ‘open-heart surgery.’

Steve Bruce felt that Rangnick was unfairly criticised during his Old Trafford tenure, despite the Austria boss highlighting the systemic issues within United at the time.

“Do you know something? Even Ralf Rangnick and everybody sort of slaughtered him, by the way,” he said on The Overlap’s Stick to United podcast.

“He said this club needs ‘open-heart surgery,’ if you remember. And probably he was right. Looking back on what he said, everybody scoffed at him at the time.

“As I said when we talked at the top of the interview here, have they got the finances, first of all? Now, they’ve got to get recruitment right, don’t get me wrong.

“But Man United have got buying Wayne Rooney, you know, buying Ruud van Nistelrooy, buying [Carlos] Tevez. They had a knack [for] buying top, top, top players.”

United legend Bruce argued that the Red Devils’ project under Ineos only works if they address the issues that Rangnick first spotlighted. The former Sunderland and Blackpool boss added that United manager Michael Carrick must now “overcome” the major hurdle of the Red Devils’ internal issues compared with what rival Premier League clubs don’t face.

“And at the moment, I just don’t see it,” Bruce explained.

“And because of maybe the finances. So, they’ve got to get that right first before they put the coach in. No matter what coach you are, you know, when you look at Man City’s squad, Arsenal’s squad, and they had to say Liverpool’s squad compared to where United are, I don’t think we’re there yet.

“And that’s what Michael’s got to face. And that’s what they’ve got to overcome.”

Carrick became the seventh permanent Man Utd head coach in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era after he replaced Ruben Amorim in the Old Trafford dugout.