On the morning Manchester United face Atletico Madrid at the Metropolitano, the most talked-about quote about their manager comes from a former United midfielder on a podcast. Nicky Butt has revealed that Michael Carrick once told him management was not for him.
“I was with Michael before he got the Man United job and spoke to him about management,” Butt said on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, as reported by the Daily Mail. “He went ‘no it’s not for me, it’s too much, my head’s all over the show, I’d only do it for the big job. The big job is Man United.'”
It is a terrible look on the day of a Champions League away trip. Read it properly, though, and it is less damning than the headlines suggest. The harder line comes later.
What Butt actually said
The first half of Butt’s story is a man describing a reluctant manager who would take one job only. The fact that United came calling and Carrick said yes is not a scandal. It is the condition he set, met.
The second half is where Butt’s view lands. “I think when he’s gone through that door, put aside last year because like Scholesy said that’s totally different to this year, I think he’s realised he’s gone into a club that’s different to the club that he knew and was at,” he said. Then came the loyalty argument: “These lads won’t turn down Man United. Ole Gunnar wouldn’t turn it down. Roy Keane might never turn that down.”
Our read: that is the part that should sting. Butt is not saying Carrick is out of his depth. He is saying Carrick took the job because of what United meant to him, and has found a different place behind the door. Butt, a Class of ’92 graduate who never played alongside Carrick but came across him during his own time coaching at the club, the Mail notes, knows that gap better than most.
“Living a little bit in my bubble”
Carrick’s own words on Monday make an interesting companion piece. Speaking before the flight to Madrid, he admitted United are in “a spot” but promised they would “come out fighting”, the Guardian reports. On pressure: “I’m pretty good at shutting off, to be honest; closing off and living a little bit in my bubble.”
Set that next to “my head’s all over the show” and you have the two Carricks Butt is describing: the private man who worried about what management does to you, and the manager who has learned to shut it out. He also said this: “If you haven’t got that little bit in you where maybe it’s a little bit crazy times but you actually love the challenge and really want to dig deep to find the answers, then this is not the place for you.” That sounds like a man who has answered his own doubts, or is working hard to.
The record Butt asked us to put aside
Butt says to “put aside last year”, and the numbers explain why Carrick’s defenders will not. He took over in January after Ruben Amorim’s sacking and finished third. Bruno Fernandes was named PFA Player of the Year after nine goals and 21 assists, the BBC notes.
This season is the opposite. Six points from six league games is United’s worst start in 40 years, and the BBC points out that the last time it went this badly, Ron Atkinson was eventually sacked to make way for Sir Alex Ferguson. United are out of the Carabao Cup to Brighton. Kobbie Mainoo and Luke Shaw picked up knocks against Tottenham and did not travel. Fernandes is “carrying something”, Carrick admitted, and took 23 minutes to complete a pass against Spurs, according to the BBC. Benjamin Sesko is injured again and Casemiro has gone to Inter Miami.
That is the real context for Butt’s remark. A manager who finished third with Fernandes in record form and Sesko scoring is now without both at full strength. Whether management is “too much” for Carrick is a question for May, not the second week of October.
Our verdict
Butt has not done his old club any favours with the timing, and the Mail’s word “damning” is doing heavy lifting. Strip the anecdote back and it describes a man who said he would only manage United, then managed United, and is now finding it harder than last spring. That is not a confession. It is the job. The real test of Butt’s point is tonight in Madrid: if United look like a side that has found “who’s really there”, in Carrick’s phrase, the podcast clip will age badly. If they are overrun, it will be quoted at him all winter.
Gary Neville has been weighing his own Sky role this month; read why we think he should stay in the chair.
Sources: Daily Mail, The Guardian, BBC Sport.
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