How Michael Carrick’s Man United fell apart: Players’ bust-up on flight back from Madrid, weakness in training and on touchline – and why dressing-room sources believe divided board ‘hung him out to dry’

For the last two days, Michael Carrick has followed his familiar route towards Manchester United’s training base, nudging his black Land Rover past the security barrier at Carrington before 8am, and making his way into work just as he has for much of the last two decades as a player, coach and head coach at the club.

While Carrick’s fate has been decided by men in suits in Monaco and Manchester, he has put on his training gear and gone through the motions of coaching whichever players are left during the international break.

It has become increasingly apparent that Carrick was a dead man walking in the two weeks since the United board gave him a stay of execution and bought themselves time after the 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth last month.

Having effectively been brought in as a caretaker when United plucked him off the beach in Barbados in mid-January, he left much the same way: merely keeping the seat warm for Mauricio Pochettino in the chaotic days that have led to his sacking.

Sources close to the United dressing room believe Carrick has been ‘hung out to dry’ as United dithered over his future and then began a futile attempt to appoint Pochettino as his replacement in secret.

This is the story of how Carrick’s United fell apart. It is the story of how disgruntled players aired their dirty laundry in public and clashed in private. It is the story of how the club’s boardroom became the backdrop for an executive power struggle. And it is the story of how the magic touch that saw Carrick land the job permanently just five months ago deserted him…

Carrick would have seen the writing on the wall when he got up to give an impressive speech at a dinner in the Heritage Suite at Old Trafford on Friday night to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sir Alex Ferguson’s appointment.

The significance of the occasion was not lost on Carrick. Ferguson was brought in to succeed Ron Atkinson on the same date in November 1986 with United one place above the relegation zone. Having boxed himself into an identical corner, Carrick too was on borrowed time.

Two days later, he stood helplessly on the touchline at Old Trafford as United played out a ridiculous 4-4 draw with Aston Villa. Twice his team fought back from two goals down, but it was the final proof for United bosses that change was unavoidable.

The biggest club in English football having to endure the humiliation of at least two weeks in the relegation zone was too much for them to stomach.

His body language after the Bournemouth game when a tearful and crestfallen Carrick offered what looked like a farewell wave to the Stretford End – four days after he approached fans in Como to apologise for an equally painful 4-1 Champions League surrender – suggested he was already done.

The 45-year-old limped on to another defeat at Chelsea, then presided over a barmy 3-2 comeback win over Roma and the bonkers draw with Villa. A consummate and composed midfielder for United, Carrick of all people knew this wasn’t the way football should be played.

All the while, he spoke like a man who could turn things around. They always do. But the performances and results told a different story.

His critics would argue that someone whose only previous job in management was at Middlesbrough should never have been put in charge of United in the first place.

Others would say the bravest move by the club would have been to thank Carrick for his admirable efforts in securing third place and Champions League qualification last season, and move on in the summer when Pochettino would have been available for free before signing a new contract as US coach with a £7million release clause.

Instead, Carrick was rewarded with a two-year deal in May and the wheels fell off in spectacular fashion. Rather like his friend and former team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the honeymoon period gave way to something altogether less appealing.

At least Solskjaer stuck around for three more years. Having beaten the Norwegian to the job in January, Carrick’s reign lasted less than 10 months.

The similarities between the two men are striking. Ex-players who basked in the glory days under Ferguson and know what it takes to succeed at Old Trafford, but were incapable of lifting the modern-day Manchester United to similar heights.

Having replaced Ruben Amorim and inspired a remarkable turnaround in the second half of last season, Carrick must have thought he had a chance.

His calm demeanour and experience of life in the Old Trafford pressure cooker that had played a part in his appointment was in contrast to the emotional incontinence of Amorim. How strange then that it has given way to such calamity and chaos.

United got off to the worst possible start by losing at newly-promoted Hull City in August. Tigers boss Sergej Jakirovic belittled them by saying his goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis might as well have been sipping a cup of tea, and the hits have just kept on coming for Carrick.

Aside from Bournemouth, there were the late equalisers scored by Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Dominic Solanke for Everton and Tottenham, the controversial winner conceded to 10-man Manchester City, crashing out of the Carabao Cup to Brighton after giving up a two-goal lead, and the defeats in Europe by Atletico Madrid and Como after going behind in the opening seconds.

By the time Alysson scored in the first minute for Villa on Sunday, United’s defence had become as leaky as the Old Trafford roof. The four goals Carrick’s side conceded took it to 15 in his final four games.

So why the alarming decline from last season? The United players haven’t looked sharp after a disjointed World Cup summer that involved a more relaxed one-week training camp in Ireland. There have been too many injuries.

Some players have spoken of a drop-off in training under Carrick and his backroom staff. Others feel that the switch to a more possession-based 4-2-4 system was asking too much of a group who aren’t suited to it.

There was surprise that a man so invested in the club’s academy used so few young players. Harry Amass was left kicking his heels despite the chronic shortage of left backs, JJ Gabriel’s shock exit was an unwelcome distraction, and Shea Lacey’s re-emergence came too late.

It would be grossly unfair to pin this all on Carrick though. He is just the latest unfortunate to pay the price for the shambles at United which runs from the boardroom to the dressing room.

Amid ongoing uncertainty over his future, there has been a power struggle behind the scenes between director of football Jason Wilcox and director of recruitment Christopher Vivell over who to replace him, while sources close to the Glazer family have revealed a growing dissatisfaction at how minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos are running the club.

United failed Carrick in the transfer market last summer with a futile pursuit of his No 1 midfield target Elliot Anderson, and instead delivered Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos.

Carrick could see trouble on the horizon when he spoke to the media at Carton House in Maynooth during that pre-season camp in early August, but tried not to rock the boat.

It was the day his daughter Louise was getting her A-level results. ‘You know, we would like more, we need to keep pushing for more,’ he said, using the word ‘push’ another nine times.

Carlos Baleba followed but an ankle injury meant that he couldn’t play until October, and the £70m signing then suffered a hamstring injury.

United blundered catastrophically by focusing on midfield and delaying improvements to other areas of the team until next summer. In particular, the decision not to sign cover for Luke Shaw and Benjamin Sesko backfired spectacularly as both players succumbed to injury.

Lisandro Martinez called out United’s underwhelming recruitment in Madrid by saying he expected more of Wilcox, and he isn’t the only one who feels that way.

Tielemans gave a terse ‘no comment’ when he was asked on camera about his team-mate’s remarks, but it’s understood the two players clashed on the team flight back to Manchester as cracks began to show in an increasingly unhappy camp.

The camaraderie fostered by rounds of golf involving Carrick and the players during the break in Ireland was beginning to fall apart.

It came to a head when captain Bruno Fernandes became the second member of the leadership group to speak out of turn, questioning Carrick’s tactics after the loss to Como.

Having continuously defended his players in the face of criticism from some of his former United team-mates over their lack of effort, Carrick’s spiky response that ‘if you don’t run forward and you don’t run back, you aren’t going to win’ perhaps revealed his true feelings about this group.

He and Fernandes settled their differences in a clear-the-air meeting, but the questions didn’t go away. When he was asked about their relationship again at the end of what proved to be his final pre-match press conference last Friday, Carrick tapped his inquisitor on the shoulder as he left the room at Carrington and said with a smile: ‘Nice try!’

It was typical of Carrick, who often met questions with the knowing grin of a man who couldn’t say what he really thought.

It got to the point where he was encouraged by the club to be a little more forthcoming in press conferences. There have been some barbed post-match exchanges in TV interviews with Sky Sports and Viaplay this season, and the five-minute monologue before the Bournemouth game was pure theatre.

But on the whole, Carrick’s ability to play a straight bat in front of the cameras was a welcome change for the Old Trafford hierarchy compared to the loose-lipped Amorim – particularly with the Amazon Prime documentary-makers following their every move.

‘He talks a lot but doesn’t say much,’ said Roy Keane, never Carrick’s biggest fan, on Sunday. ‘I don’t know if that’s a tactic, like a politician.’

More of an issue was Carrick’s rather passionless appearance on the touchline, which seemed to be reflected in his team at times.

Always dressed in black, a hand placed studiously on his chin, it has contrasted with more animated adversaries such as Unai Emery, Roberto De Zerbi and Diego Simeone in recent weeks.

‘He doesn’t upset anyone, but doesn’t inspire anyone either,’ remarked one dressing room source.

The fans were always behind him though, even the ones who may have accepted some time ago that a change was needed. Support and sympathy were never in short supply for a coach who has been let down by the men in the directors’ box and the players on the pitch.

That much has been abundantly clear by the abuse meted out to Ratcliffe and Co this season, and the unprecedented scenes when the fans turned on the players after Bournemouth.

Carrick has been known to stand alongside them in the past, and it would be no surprise to see him there again in future.

‘Oh, it’s Carrick you know…’ echoed his tribute song from the Stretford End as he disappeared down the tunnel for the last time on Sunday evening.

So another bites the dust. A good man. A United man. The right man for the job? Maybe not, as it turns out. That poisoned chalice now passes to Mauricio Pochettino.