Michael Carrick has made a passionate plea for more time as Manchester United head coach, invoking the tenures of Mikel Arteta and Diego Simeone to argue that faith in a manager is often rewarded. He urged his bosses not to waste the foundations he has laid.
Pressure builds after slow start
Carrick delivered United back into the Champions League with a run of 12 wins from 17 Premier League games in the second half of last season. However, on the eve of the club's first away game in the competition, he is already under pressure and fighting for his future.
United have won just two of eight games in all competitions and have made their worst start to a league season in 40 years. A testing trip to Atletico Madrid is scheduled for Tuesday night.
Carrick cites Arteta and Simeone
Carrick is not planning to go without a fight, pointing to the success Arteta and Simeone have had at Arsenal and Atletico after being given time as evidence of what could be around the corner.
The 45-year-old said he was loving the task of turning around a difficult start to the season and hinted that he is finding out which of his squad is willing to get into the trenches with him.
"I'm sitting here with a coach here that's been here a long, long time, and I'm sure there are times when there have been waves when it hasn't quite gone to plan," Carrick said as he sat in the bowels of the Metropolitano, a stadium built on the success of Simeone's glittering 15 years at Atletico.
"They've had huge successes and winning leagues and being around right in the late stages of the Champions League, but there've been times when it hasn't gone quite to plan. I understand that when it's not going too well, there's a real clamour and a real feeling that it's a disaster and that everything needs to be changed. That's not my mindset."
Finding who is really there
"To achieve anything really, you've got to be able to deal with things that are difficult, you've got to overcome things, that's just part of it. I did it throughout my career and it's just the way it is.
"I love this part when it's not quite going for you, you see who's really there, you see within the group, the players, the squad, the club, who's really there and who wants to be here for the long term and really attached to it and really means something."
Carrick is not in imminent danger of getting the sack at United, but he knows he needs an uptick in performances and results in the short term to ease the pressure on his shoulders. His decision to plead for more time in Madrid suggests he senses the mood is turning, with his team booed during and after Saturday's tepid draw with Tottenham.
The former United midfielder accepts that patience is now unusual for bosses, but having cycled through a series of failed managers, United might have little choice but to invest more time in someone who believes he is firmly on the right track.
"It pains me to say, but the one [manager] that won the league in our country last season has been there for a long period of time," said Carrick. "It's seven years, and the first two seasons were maybe seventh or eighth. I think he's done an incredible job, Mikel, and that's another example."
