Solskjaer backed Carrick to United board as former teammate faces sack after one season

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told Manchester United’s board to hire Michael Carrick when the pair were rival candidates for the manager’s job in January — a gesture of loyalty that makes Carrick’s impending sacking all the more striking, with the club sitting 18th in the Premier League after ten games.

Carrick was appointed following Ruben Amorim’s departure and initially impressed, steadying a side that had endured an inconsistent start to the campaign and ultimately steering them into the Champions League. Solskjaer, his former teammate and fellow contender for the role, says he chose to champion Carrick rather than undercut him during conversations with the club hierarchy.

“It was a very special period. Of course it was. It was special in many ways,” Solskjaer told Norwegian outlet TV2. “When I spoke to United, I also boasted about Michael. ‘If you choose him, you will get a good man,’ I said. I think he did the same to me.”

The mutual goodwill between the two men stood in contrast to the weight of the opportunity on offer. Neither, according to Solskjaer, treated the pursuit as a zero-sum contest, with both approaching the club’s hierarchy with measured loyalty rather than relentless self-promotion.

The board backed Carrick, and for a time the decision looked well-founded. But results have unravelled sharply this season. United have won just one of their first ten Premier League matches, and a dramatic 4-4 draw at home to Aston Villa on Sunday — in which Patrick Dorgu’s stoppage-time equaliser briefly lifted the mood — did little to alter the trajectory.

On Monday it emerged that chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox had held a meeting to discuss Carrick’s future. By Wednesday, the pair had travelled to Monaco to meet co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and finalise the decision to dismiss him.

United are now understood to be closing in on Mauricio Pochettino as Carrick’s replacement. The Argentine, currently in charge of the United States men’s national team, has long been linked with the Old Trafford position and is reportedly keen to take the job, with a deal said to be close.