Football pundit Jamie O’Hara has urged Manchester United to bring in Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick for the upcoming FA Cup final against Manchester City.
The 20-time English champions have endured a miserable campaign. They are on course for their worst ever finish of the Premier League era, with Monday’s 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace leaving them languishing in eighth.
This has led to speculation that the Red Devils are preparing to part company with Erik ten Hag. New part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is desperate to return the club to the pinnacle of English football and a change of manager appears to be on the cards this summer.
United run the risk of missing out on European football, with the FA Cup likely to be their only passage into the Europa League. However, they could still sneak into the Europa Conference League. That place will go to the team that finishes seventh if Manchester City emerge victorious at Wembley Stadium later this month.
With so much still to play for, there have been calls from sections of the United fanbase to make the change now to give them the best opportunity of defeating their ‘noisy neighbours’. If they do opt to go down that route, it would likely see an interim come in to take the reins before a permanent successor is found over the summer.
This is where Middlesbrough come in. Former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder and talkSPORT pundit Jamie O’Hara has suggested that Manchester United ‘borrow’ former player Michael Carrick for the remainder of the season before sending him back to the Riverside in the summer. Speaking to Grosvenor Casino, he said:
“Against Crystal Palace on Monday night, Manchester United were terrible. It was a sackable offence. I can’t believe how bad Ten Hag is, how bad it’s got and that Sir Jim Ratcliffe is actually sticking by him.
“They should get someone new in for the final to give themselves a chance. You can’t have Ten Hag in the dugout. He’s leaving at the end of the season. The players have stopped running for him. They’re going into that game in a bad vein of form, in a bad frame of mind. I would change it and try and get a lift by getting in Michael Carrick. Just a couple of games, then he can go back to Middlesbrough.”
Of course, Carrick enjoyed a stellar career at Old Trafford before taking up a coaching role under Jose Mourinho. He remained under the stewardship of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer before leading the team following the Norwegian’s sacking in 2021.
The former England international was then given his first taste of management at Boro, where he has emerged as one of the hottest young coaches in the game. The Teesside club reached the play-offs last season, exiting at the semi-final stage against Coventry City. A slow start this season saw them playing catch-up, eventually finishing eighth, four points off the top six.
Writer’s View
With Carrick’s ties to Manchester United, it’s easy to see why this suggestion has been made. The Red Devils are in complete disarray at the moment and nobody is giving them a chance in the FA Cup final against the might of Manchester City.
It’s a wild suggestion but there is a method to his madness. Bringing in a club legend would give the fans and players a temporary lift ahead of the biggest game of their season. The chances of this becoming a reality though is zero. There is absolutely no benefit of this to Middlesbrough and in the very unlikely event that United explore this, they would surely laugh them out of the building.
