Carragher claims Carrick secretly wants United to end his misery before Chelsea clash

Jamie Carragher has claimed that Michael Carrick privately wants Manchester United to sack him, even as the manager publicly continues to fight for his job ahead of Saturday’s Premier League fixture against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Carrick, 45, has endured a wretched start to the season, with United winning just one of their opening eight league matches and sitting 16th in the table. The result at Stamford Bridge is widely seen as a potential tipping point for the club’s hierarchy.

Speaking on The Overlap, Carragher was blunt in his assessment. “I think he can never say publicly, but I think Michael Carrick would want to be put out of his misery,” the former Liverpool defender said. “I really do. I think the thought of going into that training ground now, seeing Bruno [Fernandes] and trying to do that team talk before Chelsea when you know the players just aren’t having you at all. Those players know that Michael Carrick’s not going to be there in two or three weeks. He knows it, they know it, everybody, we know it.”

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is expected to attend the Chelsea match in person, a visit that will only intensify scrutiny on the club’s leadership. Sources close to United suggest Ratcliffe could also evaluate the performances of technical director Jason Wilcox and CEO Omar Berrada, with their own positions potentially under review.

Former United midfielder Nicky Butt has pointed to Wilcox as a key figure in the club’s current dysfunction. Speaking on the Good, the Bad and the Football podcast, Butt said: “I’m going to point the finger at Jason. If you put, let’s say, a Darren Fletcher in that job, he’d get a bit of, ‘Okay, he’s not done it before but he knows what the football club’s about.’ If Jason comes in and he is the best of the best — which I believe Dan Ashworth was but didn’t have the experience of Man United — that’s why he got the job. Because he’s the best. Now, if you’re not the best, which you’d have to have been to get that job over someone like Fletcher, then that’s a problem.”

The convergence of a struggling squad, a watching owner, and growing doubts over the entire football operation makes Saturday’s trip to west London one of the most consequential afternoons of United’s season so far.