Manchester United icon Nicky Butt has identified Michael Carrick as the ideal candidate to lead the club following Ruben Amorim’s dismissal on Monday. The Red Devils find themselves searching for a new direction after Amorim’s 14-month tenure ended abruptly due to a public fallout with the club’s leadership.
Despite arriving at Old Trafford with a pedigree of two league titles from Sporting CP, Amorim failed to translate that success to the Premier League, leaving the team in sixth place after a turbulent season that mirrored the club’s 15th-place finish in the previous campaign.
Darren Fletcher, the current Under-18s coach, will assume first-team duties for Wednesday’s trip to Burnley while the board seeks a temporary replacement to oversee the squad until the summer. While Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner remains the bookmakers’ favorite for the permanent role in the 2026/27 season, Butt believes Sir Jim Ratcliffe should prioritize a manager with a deep-rooted connection to the club’s identity. Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, Butt suggested that his former teammate Michael Carrick possesses the temperament and institutional knowledge to stabilize the project.
“I really believe the next Manchester United manager should have a link to the club. We might not do much worse than Michael Carrick. I know people will laugh and say he hasn’t been in charge of a top team yet. He knows the football club really well, he stays very calm, he’s a United legend, and he did a good job at Middlesbrough. I think they could do a lot worse than bringing Michael Carrick back,” Butt stated.
Carrick’s managerial stock remains high despite his departure from Middlesbrough last summer, where he earned praise for his tactical flexibility during a three-year stint. His history at Old Trafford includes two successful spells as caretaker manager, first after Jose Mourinho’s exit in 2018 and again following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s departure in 2021. Butt argues that Carrick’s composed leadership style offers a necessary contrast to the recent friction observed under the previous regime.
Beyond the dugout, Butt issued a stern warning to the incoming manager regarding the future of Manuel Ugarte. Manchester United invested £50 million to sign the Uruguayan midfielder from Paris Saint-Germain in 2024, yet the 24-year-old has struggled to adapt to the physical and technical demands of the Premier League. Butt remains convinced that Ugarte lacks the specific profile required to succeed in a Manchester United midfield and urged the next manager to move on from the Erik ten Hag-era signing.
“Ugarte will never be a Manchester United midfielder. Not in a million years would he be a Manchester United midfielder,” Butt added.
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