Man Utd want manager who won Premier League title with Chelsea to replace Michael Carrick | OneFootball

Manchester United have made former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte their top managerial candidate to replace Michael Carrick, as former Red Devils midfielder Nicky Butt casts doubt on his future.

Man Utd have picked up only four points from four Premier League matches so far this season.

The Red Devils did extremely well in the second half of last season when Carrick was in an interim role at Man Utd.

Man Utd finished third in the Premier League table last season, with Carrick subsequently getting the manager’s role on a full-time basis.

Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has said that Man Utd co-owners, INEOS, have no plans whatsoever to sack Carrick as their manager anytime soon.

Antonio Conte lined up as Michael Carrick replacement at Man Utd

However, the Italian media is now reporting that Man Utd already have a candidate in mind to replace Conte – former Chelsea manager Conte.

According to September 15’s print edition of Corriere della Sera, as relayed by SportWitness and CalcioMercato, Conte is at the top of Man Utd’s shortlist of managers.

The Italian, who led Chelsea to Premier League title success in 2026/17, is without a managerial role at the moment following his departure from Napoli at the end of last season.

Conte is reportedly waiting for the right project to get back into management, with his record of winning major trophies very tempting for Man Utd.

Amid rumours on Carrick’s future, former Man Utd midfielder Nicky Butt believes that his ex-Old Trafford teammate may not last in the managerial role until January.

Butt said on The Good, The Bad & The Football: “I think that’s all well and good saying (Manchester United) doing (their recruitment) in sections, but if you’re a manager, you’re thinking: the forwards, they think they’re sorted.

“I don’t think they are. I think they need a number 9, an out and out number 9.

“They’ve gone and sorted the midfield out, which is debatable.

“I think they’ve done a decent job with that, but it could be that Michael could not even get to the next transfer window, and he could be going, ‘Well I’ve lost my job and you’re not giving me the tools to go and do my job with the back four’.

“Because certainly whatever you say about that back four, Harry Maguire’s been an unbelievable player – a top, top player – but he’s getting to a certain age now, and he is getting older, and we’ve all, we’ve all been there, haven’t we?

“You get older and you slow up or you’re not as good, not as quick.

“Martinez is still at the top of his game, he’s still a really good player.

“I love Luke Shaw. When he’s fit and playing, he’s one of the best in Europe, but it’s a fact that he gets a lot of injuries.

“The right backs, I don’t believe either of them are good enough.

“So, you’re looking as a manager or as a coach, and you’re going, ‘Well, I’m desperate to get some players in the back four’ but then it looks like the recruitment team and the powers that beat Utd are going, ‘No, that’s our next phase, and that might happen in January, it might even happen, and it’s gonna be really hard, or it’ll probably be happening in the summer’.

“That doesn’t help the coaches.”