Michael Carrick will remain Manchester United manager for now, but his position is under severe threat following a poor run of results. As the club considers its options, Sir Alex Ferguson's past endorsements of three potential successors highlight the difficulty of finding an elite replacement.
Carrick's Tenure Under Pressure
Carrick's time in charge has suffered a sharp decline. Appointed interim manager in January after Ruben Amorim's dismissal, the Englishman initially impressed, securing Champions League football and a third-place Premier League finish. However, after modest summer backing, his team have struggled this campaign. United's only league win this season came against Ipswich Town, and they currently sit 16th in the table. They have also been eliminated from the Carabao Cup by Brighton and suffered a 4-1 European defeat to Como.
After a 3-0 loss to Bournemouth on Sunday, many expected Carrick to be dismissed. Instead, United decided to give him a stay of execution following crisis talks involving chief executive Omar Berrada, technical director Jason Wilcox, and co-owners Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family. Reports suggest the club's reluctance to sack Carrick stems from a lack of elite, ready-made replacements available in the market.
Ferguson's Preferred Candidates
Looking at the three managers Ferguson has championed over the years illustrates United's predicament: every coach he would trust is out of reach. The first is Massimiliano Allegri. When Erik ten Hag was dismissed in October 2024, reports in Italy suggested Ferguson preferred Allegri as his successor. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Ferguson backed Allegri, having long admired Italian football. Allegri won the Scudetto with AC Milan in his debut 2010/11 season, then joined Juventus in 2014, winning five consecutive Serie A titles and reaching two Champions League finals. After leaving in 2019 and returning two years later, he added a Coppa Italia. His second Juventus stint ended in 2024, and he is now Napoli's manager, having joined in July following Antonio Conte's departure.
The second candidate is Mauricio Pochettino, whom Ferguson has long admired. Ferguson famously took Pochettino to lunch in London in 2016 and once called him the best manager in the Premier League. Pochettino transformed Tottenham into Champions League regulars from 2014 to 2019, and before joining Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, Ferguson named him as his ideal choice to replace the under-pressure Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Pochettino is now head coach of the United States men's national team, leading them to the round of 16 at World Cup 2026. He is contracted through to World Cup 2030, making a move to United highly unlikely.
Guardiola's Firm Stance
The final name is Pep Guardiola, the only one currently without a job, but a move to United appears impossible. In his book Games of My Life, Ferguson reflected on a 2012 dinner with Guardiola in New York, writing: "Over the past ten years, I have often wondered what might have happened if the dinner I had with Pep Guardiola in New York in 2012 had taken place a couple of months earlier." He added: "If I could rewind time, we would have dined some months earlier, I would have poured plenty of Tignanello (Italian wine) and I would have tried my hardest to convince him that his future lay in Manchester. Unfortunately for us, it did. Enough said."
Guardiola has ruled out managing United. In 2020, the former Manchester City manager was asked if he could ever be coaxed into joining the rivals. "After training City, I won't train United, just like I would never train Real Madrid," he said. "Definitely not. If I didn't have any [other] offers, I would be in the Maldives."
With all three of Ferguson's preferred candidates unavailable, United's search for a long-term successor to Carrick remains constrained by the current market.
