There is something oddly familiar about Manchester United’s relationship with interim managers. A coach arrives when the club is in trouble. The atmosphere changes. Players who looked short of confidence suddenly appear liberated. Results improve, the football becomes more convincing and, before long, the temporary solution begins to look like the answer to a much bigger problem. Then comes the announcement: the caretaker gets the permanent job. That is often when the story changes. Michael Carrick is the latest Manchester United manager to find himself caught in this peculiar cycle. And, perhaps more intriguingly, he is now experiencing both sides of it within the same year. When Ruben Amorim left United in January 2026, the club was sixth in the Premier League and had already been eliminated from both domestic cups. Carrick was initially appointed until the end of the season. What followed was considerably better than anyone at Old Trafford could reasonably have expected. He won 11 and drew three of his first 16 matches, beating Manchester City and Arsenal in successive games and securing victories against Aston Villa and Liverpool. United climbed back into the Champions League places and finished third. Carrick had done enough to turn a caretaker appointment into a permanent one. In May, United handed him a contract until 2028. The logic was straightforward. The players appeared to respond to him, the results were strong and, crucially, there was a sense that he had restored something inside the dressing room. Jason Wilcox, United’s director of football, said Carrick had built a strong bond with the players and helped create a winning culture. But then the permanent job began. Five Premier League matches into the 2026-27 season, United had five points. They had lost at newly promoted Hull, beaten…
