It’s been a quiet(er) week for Manchester United.
Third place secured, Champions League football in their back pocket. A farewell to Casemiro. Michael Carrick’s future — sorted.
For a change, the action is happening elsewhere: Arsenal have ended their 22-year wait for a Premier League title, Pep Guardiola is leaving Manchester City, Chelsea have appointed their fourth manager of the season — fifth if you count both of Calum McFarlane’s interim spells — and social media has been awash with rumours about Arne Slot’s future at Liverpool after Mo Salah’s damaging post. As if that wasn’t enough, Spurs need final-day salvation to avoid relegation from the Premier League.
So what can United learn from all of that, and can they take advantage of any moments of weakness their rivals might suffer as a result?
We discussed this at length on Thursday’s Talk of the Devils. It’s definitely a point to take stock after the club confirmed Michael Carrick’s permanent appointment as head coach on Friday.
First of all, the Champions, Arsenal. I’ve not written that for a while. James McNicholas’ excellent piece on Tuesday painted a detailed picture of how they climbed back to the Premier League’s summit. A title six years in the planning. A projected “win window” of 2023 to 2027 after a “rigorous analysis of rival squads, contract lengths, age profiles, and managerial timelines”. Smart. It’s needed a lot more than just that along the way, of course; patience, first and foremost in Mikel Arteta as he wrestled to first reset the club and then break the glass ceiling of second place. But there’s been a plan.
It feels like, finally, United have one of those, too. ‘Project 150’ — first reported by Adam Crafton and Laurie Whitwell in late 2024 — is the ambition to win the Premier League by 2028 which will mark the club’s 150th anniversary. It’s deeper than just that aim with “a series of targets set” to “to focus energy and efforts” as chief executive Omar Berrada told Andy Mitten in a United We Stand interview last summer. A “transformation phase” was completed under Ruben Amorim. It was a reset of the squad culture. Amorim told me in an interview at the start of the season that he had set out a framework with Berrada and football director Jason Wilcox for what they expected of the players on and off the pitch. Watching the group together with their families after the Forest game certainly gave the sense that there is a happy and united squad again.
Laurie outlined on the podcast how the recruitment has been so crucial in pushing the team from a 15th-place finish to 14 points off the top. Incidentally, 12 is the closest they’ve ever finished to the title winners in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era. Senne Lammens, Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha, and Benjamin Sesko have undoubtedly helped. What could a similar summer window do? Laurie has analysed the midfield shortlist with Mark Carey, with Atalanta’s Ederson and Bournemouth’s Alex Scott becoming more and more a part of the conversation.
Appointing Michael Carrick midseason as interim head coach wasn’t part of the original plan. But it means the hierarchy must put their faith in him to deliver their ambition of glory in 2028. If Arsenal needed six years to capitalise on this win window, United must press fast-forward.
But who knows how the Premier League post-Pep will establish itself next season? Sam Lee and David Ornstein have reported that Guardiola will leave his role at City this summer with Enzo Maresca set to replace him. The club confirmed the news 12 minutes after United confirmed Carrick, and the legendary boss will leave a huge hole at the Etihad Stadium and the league. His departure has been compared to Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, from which United have still not fully recovered. By that standard, they will still be formulating a plan to win the title again in 2039. It’s not just the boss set to leave, but also experienced heads such as Bernardo Silva and John Stones. It could be a totally different City next year.
You would argue that Arsenal are best placed to capitalise. But taking City as an example, I remember Vincent Kompany outlining to me just how difficult it was to retain the title. Far more difficult than winning it the first time around. It was also his big ambition until they managed to hold on to it after their third championship. Arteta’s team will have to cope with being the team to beat.
It’s hard to know what Liverpool will look like next season. James Pearce shared on X this week that the club’s support of Arne Slot remains unchanged despite another turbulent week of rumours and Mo Salah’s comments which seemed to question his management. Maybe they will emerge from Salah’s departure stronger, with last summer’s big money buys like Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz given the chance to lead the team forward. It feels like they have a lot of work to do.
Xabi Alonso was a name a lot of their fans seem to want in charge of their side, but the ex-Liverpool midfielder has chosen Chelsea. The switched job title of manager rather than head coach feels significant for the Spaniard, who will take charge at the start of July. Like Liverpool, they still need to find out what European competition they will play in next season in the final round of fixtures, and while there’s undoubtedly huge talent in the squad, it’s a big job to drag them back into title contention.
This is not saying United will win the Premier League title next season. This is just an assessment of the moment. Mark Critchley made a great point on the pod when he said Carrick is only 16 matches into the job, we have so much still to learn about what his Manchester United will look like — the style will develop, we have been assured, but it must be done with a first pre-season post-World Cup to work out, and a campaign with European football to navigate. There are still a lot of questions we don’t know the answers to.
Andy said on Monday’s episode there has been a far too emotional response to setbacks from supporters this season. How will everyone respond if Carrick suffers a bad patch next term? How will he respond?
Cautiously optimistic is how Critch termed his mindset as we look ahead to the future. I think that’s fair.
You can also have your say in the comments below…
Red all over
- “Shocked and gutted” is how Harry Maguire described being left out of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup. Luke Shaw may well feel the same. Even if you think a summer off for the pair might be a benefit to United’s season next year, it’s hard not to feel for them missing out on what was likely to be their final World Cup. Kobbie Mainoo is in.
- Carrick confirmed on Thursday in his press conference that we have seen the last of Casemiro in the red shirt of Manchester United. It has been agreed that he will sit out the final day trip to Brighton. Might the next sight of him in club football be in pink?
- Yet more praise has been sent the way of Bruno Fernandes this week after equalling the Premier League record of 20 assists in a season and picking up the FWA Player of the Year award at a dinner in London on Tuesday. Carrick had the assist on this occasion and handed over that trophy. Andy made the argument that Bruno could get into any team in the world right now…
- An article with the headline: “What I love about every Premier League ground (and what I don’t)”. You don’t need me to tell you who wrote it. Or that it will be very amusing. Don’t just take my word for it.
