Michael Carrick has been sacked as Manchester United manager, BBC understands. He becomes the third United manager to be dismissed in three seasons, with the sacking coming within 15 matches of signing a two-year contract.
The message about the dismissal arrived shortly after 18:00 on Sunday, 8 November, and Carrick is understood to have been informed a day earlier. It took United 44 hours to tell the public they were staying with Carrick, but chaos has ensued since. In that period, the club won one match, drew one and lost one.
The final match showed all the drama of the season. United were losing 4-2 to Aston Villa, and Old Trafford had accepted defeat. However, the team scored two goals in stoppage time to draw 4-4. Carrick celebrated Patrick Dorgu’s equaliser by raising his arm in the air, and then walked around the pitch in what proved to be his final lap of honour. Fans sang his name, and Carrick positioned himself in the middle of his players so that supporters would not turn on them as they had after the 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth two weeks earlier. Carrick was 45 years old.
Chief executive Omar Berrada and football director Jason Wilcox celebrated Dorgu’s stoppage-time equaliser against Villa in the directors’ box. Within days, they travelled to Monaco to tell minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe that a change was needed. For the third consecutive season, United are changing the person leading the team during the season. Unlike Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim, this decision was no surprise.
After 12 wins in 17 matches under Carrick and a return to the Champions League, the pre-season mood had been extremely positive. There were no signs of division. Young players, including JJ Gabriel, were part of the group, and senior staff spoke optimistically about the potential partnership of Bruno Fernandes and Youri Tielemans. Recruitment was clearly a problem. Benjamin Sesko was trying to recover from a shin injury that had cut short his previous season, and Amad Diallo suffered an ankle injury that ruled him out for seven weeks. Carrick was left without his first alternative in attack, Bryan Mbeumo had to play on the right wing, and Carrick turned to Matheus Cunha instead. Cunha’s tendency to drop deep led him into spaces occupied by captain Fernandes, neutralising United’s attack on days when they appeared unprepared for the physical challenge of an opponent motivated by a long-awaited return to the Premier League.
Jan Aage Fjortoft, acting as an interviewer for Nordic broadcaster Viaplay, claimed that United lacked passion, which Carrick dismissed as ‘laughable’. Carrick told reporters: ‘It is one game.’ The following week, United were losing to Ipswich, another newly promoted team. Only a slide by Marcelino Núñez inside his own half allowed Cunha to add Fernandes for an undeserved equaliser. Fernandes had just been named PFA Player of the Year for 2025-26, and then scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 win. United have not won in the Premier League since.
The trip to Everton followed, where United led twice, the second time when Sesko struck two minutes from the end after coming on as a substitute. Deep into stoppage time, Ainsley Maitland-Niles struck from distance to prevent the visitors. Asked how confident he was in his team’s ability to react to a disappointing start to the season, Carrick snapped: ‘It has not been that bad.’ United’s physical preparation has been questioned again and again. They struggled against Manchester City, who were reduced to 10 men in the first half, and City then benefited from a goal by Erling Haaland for which referee Howard Webb later admitted should not have stood. Carrick’s post-match complaints were justified. After leading 2-0 within 10 minutes against Brighton in the EFL Cup, United were outplayed and lost due to two goals in four minutes of the second half.
