Neville reveals Man Utd’s ‘official position’ on appointing Carrick permanently – ‘I think that’s fair’ | OneFootball

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has revealed INEOS’ “official position” on whether to appoint interim boss Michael Carrick on a permanent basis.

Carrick has been appointed on a deal until the end of this season after replacing former boss Ruben Amorim and has had a dream start.

Under Carrick, Man Utd have won their last four Premier League games against Manchester City, Arsenal, Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur to boost their hopes of Champions League qualification.

It was initially felt that Carrick would only be in charge until the summer, at which point the Red Devils would look to appoint an elite boss to oversee a long-term project.

However, Carrick is doing his chances of earning the manager’s job permanently no harm at all and there is a growing clamour for him to be appointed.

After Man Utd’s deserved 2-0 win against 10-man Spurs, Neville has revealed INEOS’ “official position” on making Carrick their next permanent manager.

“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,” Neville said on The Gary Neville Podcast.

“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.”

Neville has also revealed what he thinks will happen if Carrick decides to make himself available to INEOS beyond this 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,” Neville added.

“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.

“At that point Michael Carrick, like in any other recruitment role in the country for any other business, would go into what would be a process versus the likes of Thomas Tuchel and all the others that are going to become available in the summer. I think that’s fair.”