Michael Carrick's Manchester United Challenge: Transfers and Expectations
Michael Carrick knows exactly what he has walked into at Old Trafford. The job is a privilege, he says. The demands are brutal.
On the eve of his first full Premier League season in charge of Manchester United, Carrick cuts a calm figure, but the message is relentless: this squad is not finished yet.
Transfers done – and work still to do
United have spent £83m so far, bringing in Andrey Santos from Chelsea and Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa, while Karl Darlow has arrived on a free as back-up goalkeeper. Carrick is happy with that business. Delighted, in fact.
But he is not pretending the gaps are filled.
Left-back remains a problem area. Central midfield still needs reinforcing, especially with a Champions League return looming after two years away. United cannot stroll back into Europe and expect old scars to vanish.
The market has already delivered a few bruises. United stepped away from deals for Elliot Anderson and Matheus Fernandes after refusing to match rival offers, and they are currently spending less than newly promoted Ipswich and Coventry. That contrast is not lost on the manager.
"We want more, we need more, we keep looking for how we can do that," Carrick said.
"Money's money, I get that. We feel like we have to be pushing for everything we're involved in, while being realistic of what the recent history's looked like over a period of time.
"For now, we've got to make the most of it, but we've got to push every boundary we can to be able to win again, basically. That's the challenge."
A lighter summer, a heavier burden
Away from the transfer noise, Carrick allowed himself one personal moment of joy this week. His daughter got the A-level grades she was hoping for on Thursday. A good day at home, a rare one in a profession that rarely pauses.
The summer schedule has helped. United have avoided the long-haul, energy-sapping tours that have become standard for superclubs, instead staying relatively close to home with games in Scandinavia against Wrexham, Rosenborg, Atletico Madrid and Paris St-Germain, before a meeting with Leeds in Dublin.
"I love the position I'm in," Carrick said.
"There's the football side; the tactical, the training, putting the team together. Then there's the other side; being the face of it, leading it, trying to set the right messages, the right behaviours and right tone for what we want to look like as a football club.
"I never take anything that this position and this football club brings for granted."
He understands the optics. He is the frontman now. Which means facing questions he would rather dodge.
Rashford questions that won’t go away
Marcus Rashford’s future is one of them.
Carrick was handed multiple chances to state outright that Rashford will still be a United player when the transfer window shuts on 1 September. Each time, he stepped around the trap.
"He's our player," he repeated. Nothing more. Nothing less.
When talking about Rashford, Carrick was careful to widen the lens. He pointed out that the England forward is not the only member of the squad he has previously coached, managed or played alongside. That familiarity, he stressed, is not unique and does not earn Rashford special treatment.
"It is not a unique situation at all and [we] treat him exactly like any other player," he said.
Plenty of supporters are not quite so even-handed. Many have struggled to forgive Rashford for what they see as coolness towards United during his loan spells at Aston Villa and Barcelona, where most expected him to be playing again this season.
Even those who know him accept there is a stark contrast between the disinterested figure he became under Ruben Amorim and the fully engaged forward widely regarded as the best player to emerge from the club’s academy since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.
There is a twist, of course. Rashford’s likely first outing back in United colours? Against Amorim’s AC Milan in Wroclaw, Poland, on Saturday.
Carrick is convinced the 28-year-old still has plenty to give.
"Football's got different directions," he said. "You've got to manage through the states to have a career for 10 or 15 years. It's never going to be smooth sailing.
"But you've got to keep moving forward. If you keep looking back too much, it doesn't do anyone any favours.
"It's been good to have Marcus around this week. He's our player. He's a good player, and he gives us something a little bit different."
Mainoo back, and back to square one
Rashford was not the only England international to rejoin United this week. Kobbie Mainoo also returned on Sunday evening, walking back into a club where his story under Carrick already feels like a reboot.
When Carrick replaced Amorim in January, after Darren Fletcher’s brief two-game interim spell, one of his first tasks was to rebuild Mainoo’s confidence. The midfielder’s talent was never in doubt, but he had been largely overlooked by his previous boss.
At least Amorim used him off the bench in the Premier League last season. Thomas Tuchel did not even go that far at the World Cup, where Mainoo failed to make an appearance despite England seemingly crying out for a midfielder who could keep the ball under pressure in the latter stages.
Carrick knows that feeling all too well. Fabio Capello barely looked his way during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and that experience has shaped how he handles young players on the fringes.
He spoke to Mainoo throughout the tournament.
"I spoke to him all the way through the World Cup, not loads, but little bits," he said.
"It's challenging. From the outside we all see the glitz, the glamour and all the positive sides of football.
"But players are human beings. We all have our ups and downs. It's important we support each other.
"It was a good experience for Kobbie. It's a World Cup and that is a big step.
"He's still such a young man and he's achieved so much, so quickly. To be at the stage he's at is an achievement."
Carrick will need both Mainoo’s maturity and Rashford’s edge in the months ahead. The squad still feels incomplete, the transfer work unfinished. Yet the expectation, as always at Old Trafford, is absolute.
The question now is not whether Carrick understands that. It is whether the club will give him enough, on and off the pitch, to meet it.
