Manchester United Consider Antonio Conte as Potential Successor to Carrick
Manchester United have sounded out Antonio Conte as a potential successor to Michael Carrick – but the message from inside INEOS is clear: not yet.
Carrick, confirmed as permanent manager at the end of last season after steering United into the Champions League for 2026/27, has stumbled out of the blocks this term. Four points from four Premier League games is a limp return for a club that spent the summer talking about progress and standards.
The Champions League opener, a win last week, briefly eased the tension. Only briefly.
Conte at the top of the list
In Italy, the conversation has already moved on. According to the September 15 print edition of Corriere della Sera, United’s new co-owners, INEOS, have identified Conte as their leading candidate if they decide to sack Carrick.
Conte is currently out of work after leaving Napoli at the end of last season. At 57, he is not short of offers, but the Italian is understood to be waiting for what he views as the “right project” before jumping back into club management.
Corriere della Sera, relayed by SportWitness and CalcioMercato, report that Conte sits at the top of United’s shortlist. Not just on it. At the top.
His CV explains why. Ten major trophies. A Premier League title with Chelsea in 2016/17. Three straight Serie A crowns with Juventus in 2012, 2013 and 2014. A Scudetto with Inter in 2021. Another Italian championship with Napoli in 2025. Wherever he goes, the domestic title tends to follow.
For a club like United, still trying to piece together a coherent identity in the post-Ferguson era, the attraction of a serial winner who thrives in chaos is obvious.
INEOS stance: pressure, but no axe
Yet the noise from Italy clashes with the line from those closest to the power brokers at Old Trafford.
Transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano, speaking on his YouTube channel, insists INEOS are not preparing to pull the trigger on Carrick. The hierarchy, he says, “absolutely remain convinced that the future will be bright under Michael Carrick” and retain “total faith and confidence” in the 42-year-old.
They know the numbers: four points from four league games is nowhere near good enough. They also know the context.
Romano outlined one key frustration from the summer – the failure to land a left-back. United tried to recruit in that position but refused to panic-buy. The club, he explained, did not want to sign a player “just to say: ‘OK, we signed one.’” They wanted the right profile or nothing. In the end, they got nothing.
That decision has left Carrick short in a key area, but not, at least for now, short of backing.
Inside the club, there is no suggestion of a manager publicly bluffing his way through the crisis. Romano stresses that what Carrick says in front of the cameras – his repeated insistence that “this team is good” and will “do very well” – is exactly what he is telling those above him. He remains, in Romano’s words, “absolutely convinced” that United can kick on in the coming weeks and months, especially once the international break is out of the way.
The Italian reports tell one story: a giant circling a proven winner in Conte. The brief from INEOS tells another: a regime determined, at least for now, to ride out the early-season turbulence with Carrick.
One thing is not in doubt. If results don’t turn quickly, the name at the top of that shortlist will only grow louder.
