Carrick Insists Manchester United Need More Before Transfer Deadline

Michael Carrick is not pretending Manchester United are done.

The head coach, preparing for his first full season in charge at Old Trafford, made it clear the club still have work to do before the transfer window shuts on September 1.

“We want more, we need more,” he told Sky Sports News. “That never stops.”

Carrick wants more – and says United need it

United have already spent big in midfield. Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans have arrived for a combined £85m, while goalkeeper Karl Darlow has joined on a free from Leeds to provide competition and cover behind new No 1 Senne Lammens.

Younger arrivals Tynan Thompson, Kit Margetson and Cristian Orozco have also come through the door, though none are expected to trouble the first-team picture straight away.

The plan going into the summer was clear: rebuild the midfield after Casemiro’s departure and secure a reliable deputy for Lammens. On paper, Santos, Tielemans and Darlow tick those boxes. In the stands and online, though, the mood has been different. The fanbase has grown restless, demanding more movement and more ambition.

Carrick understands that tension but insists the club are far from complacent.

“We’re delighted with the players we’ve brought in, first and foremost,” he said. “We’ve improved the group. We’ve improved the squad in different ways – balance, quality and the direction we want to go in.

“The players that we’ve brought in, I think we’ve done really good business and we’ve got some top, top, top players. So we’re delighted with that. We always want to improve.

“We want more, we need more. We keep looking forward to how we can do that. So that never stops. We’re conscious of that and we’ve got to keep pushing.”

The message is blunt: progress, yes. Satisfaction, no.

Rashford returns to a different United

Amid the transfer noise, a familiar face has quietly changed the shape of Carrick’s summer.

Marcus Rashford is back.

The England international has rejoined the squad for pre-season after spending last season on loan at Barcelona. The LaLiga club chose not to trigger their £26m buy option, sending Rashford back to Old Trafford and into a very different environment to the one he left.

He has not played for United since December 2024. That could change this weekend, with Rashford in line for a first appearance under Carrick in a friendly against Ruben Amorim’s AC Milan. The subplot is sharp: Rashford previously fell out with Amorim before his first loan move to Aston Villa.

Carrick, once Rashford’s teammate, has kept the noise down and the tone measured.

“We’re really calm [about bringing Rashford back in],” he said. “We just treat it like anybody else coming into the group. There’s obviously this slight twist that he knows the club as well as anybody and that’s a real positive.

“He’s been here all his career, all his life before the last eight months or so to understand what it means. So that side of things is natural. That’s a given. I know we’ve got history, but I’ve got history with a number of other players as well, so that doesn’t make that a unique situation at all.

“We treat him exactly like any other player, and bring him into the group and carry on as normal.

“He brings a group of things that we haven’t got and we want to get that balance with every individual player and Marcus has come back. He’s in good form and he’s been good to have around this week.”

For Carrick, Rashford is more than a returning academy graduate. He is also a key part of the club’s transfer equation.

Left-back hunt, midfield puzzle, and the Rashford factor

United’s recruitment team are still active. The club are looking for a left-back and could yet move for another central midfielder before the deadline. A new forward, though, is unlikely as things stand, with Rashford’s return viewed as a solution through the middle for Carrick.

The search for a left-back has already hit resistance. United explored the possibility of signing Lewis Hall, only to be told by Newcastle that he is not for sale this summer. Fulham’s Antonee Robinson has also been assessed as an option, with his attacking profile fitting the brief for that side of the defence.

Harry Amass has featured in pre-season but is expected to leave before the window closes, underlining the need for a more established option on that flank.

In midfield, the picture is more nuanced. Tielemans and Santos have already arrived, and there is a long-standing admiration at Old Trafford for Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly. His versatility is attractive: he can operate both at left-back and in central midfield, theoretically covering two areas of need in one move.

It remains unclear whether United will actually bid for him in this window. It is also possible they end the summer without signing a third central midfielder, leaning on what they already have and trusting the blend Carrick has spoken about.

So the pieces are moving, but not all of them. The head coach has his core message locked in, though.

United want more. United need more.

Now the clock to September 1 will show whether the club can match his words with the reinforcements he is still asking for.