Broken promises and nobody taking responsibility: Erik ten Hag is right - Man United are addicted to going around in circles, writes NATHAN SALT, and Michael Carrick is learning his bosses don't have a clear plan

Michael Carrick wore a smile on his face as the rain came down at Carrington with Manchester United putting the final touches to preparations ahead of flying to Italy to face Como.

A brave face? Perhaps. Only hours earlier a bombshell interview with former manager Erik ten Hag dropped in which he took multiple swipes at Ineos and the club’s ownership, as well as accusing the club of enabling a toxic culture in the dressing room to exist to this day.

‘They are continuing the toxic culture; they fuel it, they give the power to the players,’ Ten Hag claimed in a sit-down with the Athletic.

He, too, took a swipe at those in the boardroom for both a lack of ideas and a lack of truth behind their promises.

‘They promised me loyalty, they promised me backing, they promised communication, that we get aligned,’ Ten Hag said of Ineos. ‘We spoke about the issues. But the promises, they didn’t keep.’

So, when Carrick touches down in Milan, and makes the trip over to Como for tonight’s press conference, all involved can be forgiven for feeling an overwhelming sense of deja vu. That sense that, no matter how many players they change, how many managers they change, how many executives come and go, this is a club that’s seemingly addicted with going round in circles.

That sense, too, that a lack of accountability is infectious at the club from top to bottom. Players have not played to their potential for years now, and yet like to point the finger elsewhere. Tactically, managers have left a lot to be desired. Those in positions of power continue to make one mistake after another.

Where toxicity has faded away from the dressing room – there is a genuine sense of camaraderie in this current first-team set-up and those close to players spoken to by Daily Mail Sport attest to that, putting aside just how poorly they so often perform – the finger-pointing and lack of accountability remains.

Blame went to Ten Hag, then it was Dan Ashworth, then it was Marcus Rashford’s fault, or Alejandro Garnacho, or Ruben Amorim, and now it’s Carrick and Lisandro Martinez front and centre in the firing line.

Dig deeper though to what many of these players, far from blameless in the club’s demise, have said and much of it still chimes as true. That’s the biggest indictment of all against Manchester United.

For every Martinez interview, in which he explicitly called out director of football Jason Wilcox and the club’s ownership in light of a 2-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid last week, there’s Cristiano Ronaldo, or Raphael Varane, or before those two, Dean Henderson.

‘Not only the manager, but the other two or three guys who are around the club [at the senior executive level]. I felt betrayed,’ Ronaldo said in a now-infamous sit-down with Piers Morgan which led to his contract at United being ripped up.

‘I don't care, people should listen to the truth. Yes, I felt betrayed.

‘The progress was zero. Since Sir Alex [Ferguson] left, I saw no evolution in the club. Nothing had changed.’

Then there was Varane, a player indirectly called out by Ten Hag in his latest interview in what he referred to as the ‘Madrid connection’ which upset the balance of power in the dressing room.

‘I think that’s what the Madrid connection brought in, that players are powerful and they want to decide,’ Ten Hag alluded to.

By the time Varane departed, he spoke clearly and concisely on the issues that stop United moving back to the very top. To this day it remains a damning, and yet accurate, assessment of the state of the club.

‘Even from the inside as a player, there wasn't a clear structure on how things were going to work,’ Varane said last year.

‘There hasn't been a fixed methodology for years. At Madrid they have a defined way of doing things at every level of the club.

‘At Manchester it was not clear or defined enough to know how to recruit, how to play, how to communicate.’

And Henderson, back in 2022, let rip when he said: ‘To sit there and waste 12 months, it is criminal really.

‘At my age, I was fuming. I told the hierarchy that I need to be playing football, I don't want to be here and play second fiddle, it was planned out. I was almost gone before the manager (Ten Hag) came through the door. I have not spoken to him since.’

Take all of those comments in isolation and most would still apply today. Where is the structure? The methodology? The game model? The communication? The plan?

Now it’s Carrick who is the manager trying to pull a rabbit out of the hat where Ten Hag and his successor Ruben Amorim ultimately failed.

This is not to say that revisionism around Ten Hag should go into overdrive. An abnormally close relationship between the SEG player agency and United’s recruitment set the club back years with signings made, such as Antony and Rasmus Hojlund.

Results and performances, too, by the end were not good enough, no matter how much he pushes back on the decision and timing to move him on.

But when he outlines broken promises, poor communication lines, and being let down, few will say he’s not speaking the gospel.

‘The leadership, you need their competence, you need the right strategy,’ Ten Hag added.

‘What is your identity? What are the work methods? You need the right structures and quality people. Then you need time.’

Carrick needs time; Ten Hag himself said as such. But United as a club, with football decisions dictated by Ineos, have had plenty of time and yet find themselves in the same place as they were when they flew to Ibiza cap in hand to convince Ten Hag that, despite flirting with managers over the summer, they did in fact want him to stay.

Holes in United’s squad were obvious then and are obvious now with a defensive crisis underscoring a trip to Como that needs to yield a victory after six games without a win and just two wins from the last ten.

The methodology flipped from Ten Hag’s bid to become a dominant, expansive side, to Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 press-heavy group. Now it’s back to a possession-based approach with Carrick at the helm, and it was a back five in the style of Amorim that squeaked out a draw at Leeds.

‘You can't keep changing, changing, changing the manager,’ Martínez said post-Atletico. ‘What about other areas? [looks up] I can't say more.

‘Tonight it is easy to say the coach, easy to say the players but also we have to see other areas [points up].’

Carrick will face all of it when he sits in front of the microphones in Como but the short and simple answer is that United haven’t had a clear plan for years. They may not be as toxic as they were under Ten Hag’s watch but there’s no denying that United are a club that continue to go around in circles.