Michael Carrick already shed his worst label

Criminally underrated as a player, former Manchester United star center midfielder Michael Carrick was something of a coach on the field, unselfishly ticking over the midfield like a human metronome, filling gaps of space as a perfect shielding defender, and always putting his teammates in a better position than himself.

Like so many great managers, Carrick was a cerebral midfielder who never put himself above the team and was content with being a background character to the bigger named superstars,

And so with that backdrop and with all the servitude for this legendary club, Carrick stepped into the high pressured manager’s seat at Old Trafford, replacing two of the worst coaches in the club’s history, with the present now dire in the aftermath of the wastefulness of both Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim.

Carrick has been a breath of fresh air as the interim manager, doing more than just care taking. He has elevated Manchester United, making them play as well as any club in Europe with quality wins over the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal, even outlasting Fulham in a pesky 3-2 win that both Ten Hag and Amorim would have flubbed.

Even though Michael Carrick is still the official interim manager, the Manchester United manager has already shed that “interim” role in the eyes of the fans after helping them battle past Fulham in a test of guile and character that the Red Devils had seemingly always failed in the last decade without Sir Alex Ferguson as the guiding voice.

Now, Man United fans do not want to hear about the big, fancy, expensive, and, quite frankly, overhyped names like England national team manager Thomas Tuchel or whichever other hot name the rumor mill feels like spitting out at them.

They want Carrick. They trust Carrick. He is one of them. The “interim” role, the temporality, and the lack of respect associated with it are dreadful and weigh a new manager down. In spirit, Carrick has shed that label.