Carrick pleads for more time at Manchester United after worst league start in 40 years

Michael Carrick urged Manchester United’s bosses not to abandon him on the eve of the club’s Champions League trip to Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, arguing that the foundations he has built deserve more time to bear fruit despite United’s worst start to a league season in 40 years.

Speaking from the bowels of the Metropolitano, Carrick invoked the tenures of Mikel Arteta at Arsenal and Diego Simeone at Atletico as evidence that faith in a manager is often rewarded. United have won just two of their eight games in all competitions this season, and the mood at Old Trafford darkened further after the team were booed during and after Saturday’s tepid draw with Tottenham.

Carrick, 45, delivered United back into the Champions League by winning 12 of 17 Premier League games in the second half of last season, and he insisted that record should count for something. “I’m sitting here with a coach here that’s been here a long, long time, and I’m sure there are times when there have been waves when it hasn’t quite gone to plan,” he said, nodding to Simeone’s 15 years at Atletico. “They’ve had huge successes and winning leagues and being around right in the late stages of the Champions League, but there’ve been times when it hasn’t gone quite to plan.”

Rather than showing signs of anxiety, Carrick said he was relishing the adversity. “I love this part when it’s not quite going for you — you see who’s really there, you see within the group, the players, the squad, the club, who’s really there and who wants to be here for the long term,” he said. The comment carried an implicit suggestion that he is already identifying which members of his squad are willing to fight alongside him.

Carrick is not understood to be in imminent danger of losing his job, but sources close to the club indicate he is aware that performances must improve quickly. His decision to make a public case for patience in Madrid suggests he senses the pressure building, with United having cycled through a series of failed managers in recent years and the hierarchy potentially reluctant to pull the trigger again so soon.

Tuesday’s visit to Atletico — a club built on exactly the kind of long-term managerial vision Carrick is advocating — represents both a stern test and, in his own framing, a pointed reminder of what sustained belief in a coach can achieve.