Manchester United manager Michael Carrick bluntly rejected the claim that he had told Nicky Butt that management was “not for me” before stepping in at Old Trafford earlier this year.
In Italy, they say, Piove sempre sul bagnato—It always rains on the wet. Carrick has been drenched by a deluge of controversy in recent days to which his former teammates and friends are unhelpfully adding.
Amid a dire run of form, questions about his job security and an open revolt between the locker room and technical staff, Carrick has now found himself having to comment on the veracity of private conversations.
Butt, a former England teammate of Carrick who spent more than a decade in Manchester United’s first team after graduating from the club’s academy, claimed that the current Red Devils manager had given up on getting back in the dugout prior to Ruben Amorim’s departure in January.
“I was with Michael before he got the United job and speaking to him about management,” Butt told fellow club icon Paul Scholes on their podcast, The Good, The Bad & The Football. “He went, ‘No, it’s not for me. It’s too much and my head’s all over the shop. I’ll only do it for the big job and the big job is United.’”
Carrick bluntly contradicted this sequence of events.
“I definitely wouldn’t be here if that was the case, would I? At this stage?” he asked. “It’s the best job I could possibly have. I feel a real privilege of being in this position and a real responsibility, but equally a drive of wanting to make a difference and having success here. I’m loving it.
“I love the situation when actually you get a little bit of a struggle where you’ve got to find a way out of it. I actually really enjoy that because that’s part of what drives you to have success. If you’re not ready for that and you can’t do anything, that’s difficult. You’re never going to be great, so we’ve got to work our way through it and I’m enjoying it as we’ve gone.”
‘Not That Far’—Carrick Makes Bold Premier League Title Claim
Rather than dwell on the fact that United have endured their worst start to a league season in 40 years, Carrick was inclined to look upward, insisting that his side are “in the mix” for Premier League (and Champions League) glory.
“We’ve had a start where we haven’t won some football games,” the retired midfielder admitted. “Alright, but correct me if I’m wrong, we are five points off the top four.
“Perspective is important and football can change. I think when we came in, we were a lot further away from third spot and we ended up finishing third. So it depends what you focus on. You either focus on the things that may be issues or you focus on the things that are possible and what can be achieved. It’s a very different mentality.
Man Utd’s 2026–27 Premier League Season So Far
“For us to win the Premier League is a massive step, of course it is. But it’s definitely something we’re striving for. We’ve got to keep pushing for it.
“We’ve won one game in the Champions League, we’ve lost one game. We’re still in the mix of that. And we’re certainly still in the mix of the Premier League, of finishing towards the top. That’s the challenge.
“It feels because of the results that everyone focusses on the negative side. It’s up to us to turn that corner and it's actually not that far away.”
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