Well it's Groundhog Day... again.
After an atrocious run of results, Michael Carrick departs Old Trafford, becoming the fifth Manchester United boss to leave mid-season since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement.
Jose Mourinho: December 2018; Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: November 2021; Erik ten Hag: October 2024; Ruben Amorim: January 2026; Michael Carrick: November 2026.
Throughout much of the post-Ferguson era, Manchester United fans have bemoaned the running of the club.
While the Glazer ownership was, and still is, a huge issue that will always hamstring the club to an extent, having the likes of Ed Woodward running the show meant Manchester United were always doomed to fail.
Woodward wanted flashy, marquee signings. Bringing star names to the club would go someway to placating fans while providing managers with good footballers and saved everyone the hassle of actually going out and unearthing talented players suited to a manager's system.
Over the years, the strategy saw Manchester United overtaken by Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool, and Arsenal can now be added to that list.
The arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe threatened to change all that. A proper hierarchy was put in place with Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox and Dan Ashworth arriving, all of whom had proper footballing experience, involved in the running of top football clubs.
Ratcliffe declared he wanted Manchester United to be best in class, particularly regarding recruitment. Bringing in a proper sporting hierarchy was crucial to that, as Ratcliffe himself acknowledged.
But Manchester United’s transfers under INEOS have been mixed at best. The senior players signed so far are: Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, Manuel Ugarte, Patrick Dorgu, Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Sesko, Senne Lammens, Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans and Carlos Baleba. Thirteen players at a cost of around £500m.
Lammens for £18m is the pick of the bunch, but none have been an unqualified success.
Spending so much money with such a remarkably poor strike rate is far from best in class, and it’s routinely setting managers up to fail. United are all too often heading into seasons ill-equipped and paying the price soon after. Amorim is the only manager whose departure came more than four months after the transfer window closed.
While recruitment is always leaving United chasing their tails, in the dugout is where the club are struggling most.
Unrest at the top
The lengthy, unedifying pursuit of Dan Ashworth, only to sack him five months into his tenure suggested all was not well behind the scenes, where these best-in-class decisions were being made.
Every man and his dog could see Erik ten Hag was not the man to take Manchester United forward after leading the club to an eighth-place finish; the club’s lowest league finish since 1990, worse than any of David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and even Ralf Rangnick achieved.
Yet the brains trust at Manchester United extended the Dutchman’s contract by 12 months on the back of the FA Cup final win over Manchester City.
Inevitably, Ten Hag was sacked less than four months later.
It did give United’s new football strategists the opportunity to bring in their own man, but Ashworth’s dissenting desire for Eddie Howe saw him depart, with Ruben Amorim joining instead.
Amorim, a promising coach with Sporting CP, implemented an ill-suited but not-at-all-surprising three-at-the-back system. United didn’t have the players for it at the time and didn’t sign them when the opportunity presented itself.
It’s never been established why United hired a manager with such a clear and unique tactical preference but refused to support him.
Ten Hag was kept on at United despite already demonstrating he wasn’t up to the task, while Amorim was hired without ever being given the sufficient tools with which to operate.
After a miserable 14 months in charge, Amorim was axed.
Two from two.
Short-term fix
At this stage, United’s solution was straightforward: an interim boss in the mould of an Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who knew the players, knew the club, and would get the fundamentals right.
United’s players were massively underperforming, but Michael Carrick’s decision to reintroduce Kobbie Mainoo into midfield and push Bruno Fernandes further forward was a catalyst for a turnaround in fortunes that saw United finish third and Carrick given the permanent job.
Nobody expected Carrick to be the man to lead Manchester United to the title, but he should at least have been the safe pair of hands that kept the club in the UEFA Champions League, bringing in much needed revenue. It’s worth remembering that Manchester United haven’t had back-to-back seasons in the UEFA Champions League since 2021/22.
There is a wider issue regarding the club’s ambition and the UEFA Champions League, with a pattern of spending that correlates with whether United are in Europe or not.
Since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure, Manchester United’s three biggest spending seasons have come when they weren’t in the UEFA Champions League; their six lowest spending seasons came when they were.
The club is complacent; it gets back amongst the European elite and so rarely puts its foot down to stay there and a gamble has been taken once again this season, signing three midfielders and nothing else. United are essentially without a centre forward for the foreseeable future because of an injury to a player who spent the entire summer sidelined.
It missed out on primary targets Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes and was still scrambling around for midfielders in late August after the season had already started.
Carrick no doubt underperformed in his role, and was perhaps never suitable for it to begin with.
But he’s the latest United manager to have been armed with a knife to a gun fight, set up to fail from the outset.
Manchester United's net spend per season
Season | Approx. net spend | In UEFA Champions League? |
2013/14 | 77m | Yes |
2014/15 | 150m | No |
2015/16 | 56m | Yes |
2016/17 | 140m | No |
2017/18 | 150m | Yes |
2018/19 | 50m | Yes |
2019/20 | 150m | No |
2020/21 | 70m | Yes |
2021/22 | 110m | Yes |
2022/23 | 220m | No |
2023/24 | 150m | Yes |
2024/25 | 124m | No |
2025/26 | 170m | No |
2026/27 | 120m | Yes |
Manchester United are in the relegation zone after winning just one of their opening 10 games - a 5-2 success against Ipswich Town back in August.
One wrong managerial appointment can be forgiven. Two in two years starts to raise alarm. Three in three years suggests you’re not capable of making of making the correct decisions required to successfully run a club.
When results turn, the manager is always the first to go. But with three mid-season sackings in three years and no confidence that the next decision will be the right one, it’s high time that the Glazers and Ratcliffe turn their attentions a little closer to home.
