Gary Neville’s stance on Man Utd appointing Carrick after ‘talking to club’ | Football | Sport

Gary Neville believes Manchester United must continue their search for a permanent manager whilst acknowledging Michael Carrick’s remarkable stint as caretaker boss. United have remained undefeated in the Premier League since Carrick took control until the end of the season. The  During this spell, United have beaten Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham and Fulham, drawn with West Ham, and beaten Everton.

United seem to have found their footing under the former Middlesbrough boss, with numerous voices calling for his permanent appointment. Neville insists United should be targeting ‘the best class of manager available’ but stopped short of ruling out his ex-team-mate, particularly if the team secures Champions League football. Speaking on Sky Sports before Monday’s victory over Everton, Neville said: “Manchester United have to pursue another manager right now around the fact of you don’t know how the results are going to go.

“But little things like Thomas Tuchel re-signing with England does start to take away the options for Manchester United and they don’t harm Michael’s chances of getting the job. If he gets United into the Champions League there will be a lot of fever around that he should be appointed.

“I’m not against him being appointed, I love him to bits. But I think Manchester United should go for the best class of manager available.

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“They’ve had young and inexperienced managers in the last two picks. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has come in before as an ex-player and that didn’t work in the end. So I feel removing as much risk as possible is the right option.”

Neville revealed he’d been in contact with the club several weeks prior to share his perspective on what he considers the best path forward for United.

Speaking to Sky Sports earlier this month, he explained: “I made my position clear a few weeks ago and what I’m not going to do is repeat it every week, but what I did, I actually spoke to the club, because ultimately the club get asked all the time from journalists and broadcasters, what’s the position of the club.

“It’s a very difficult situation, you’ve got a massive movement now with what’s happened towards giving Carrick the job, saying that really he should be considered. That’s only going to build the more that he wins and the more that he gets closer to Champions League football.

“I asked the club what is the official position of the football club in terms of what you’re saying publicly to everybody else. I have to say I thought their answer was pretty good. They said they’ve actually begun the process now, starting to look for another manager, which I thought right.

“That’s good to hear because you need to plan for everything. They’ve started the process of speaking to and looking at other managers, building all the sorts of data and analysing who should be the next manager of the football club.

“But what they’ve said is they’re not going to be bounced into – irrespective of wins or draws or losses on the pitch in this next couple of months – making an appointment. They’re going to wait until towards the end of the season.

“If Michael then at that point makes himself available for the job, and I did actually say a couple of weeks ago, I wondered whether Michael actually would say no.

“He is that type of guy Michael, he’s someone who would always work in the best interest of the football club. He may do that, or he might say no, I feel comfortable enough and I’ve built such a good relationship with the players, his coaching staff to put his name in the hat.”

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