Gary Neville has branded his former club ‘classless’ after Michael Carrick was sacked as manager on Thursday morning before he issued a warning of what’s to come to the Manchester United flops
Gary Neville has branded Manchester United “classless” over the handling of Michael Carrick’s future. The legendary midfielder was sacked by the club this morning after a dreadful start to the summer.
Carrick and his staff were told on Thursday morning that they had been relieved of their duties and plans are in place to recruit the former Chelsea and Tottenham boss and current USA manager Mauricio Pochettino as Carrick’s replacement.
Executives Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox broke the news to Carrick in person on Thursday after a meeting with co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe in Monaco on Wednesday to seal his fate, despite reports of the club reaching an agreement with Pochettino already circulating.
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Pochettino is set to become the new United boss after he concludes the immediate international break with the USA. United have taken the initial steps to arrange a compensation package reportedly in the region of £7million that would secure Pochettino’s services.
Speaking on the Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast, former United captain Neville said the process feels “clumsy” as he took aim at the United owners and board for the way they handled the future of his old team-mate.
He said: “We’re sat here today (before Thursday) recording this programme knowing that Michael Carrick is going to be sacked tomorrow, knowing that they’re speaking to Mauricio Pochettino, knowing that they’ve spoken to (Julian) Nagelsmann, (Eddie) Howe – and they should be doing that by the way, I’m not saying they shouldn’t be doing that.
“But I think the fact they’re in Monaco now and they can’t sack him today knowing that it’s happening, to me it just feels a little bit clumsy, it feels a little bit classless.
“I think if you live in Monaco, you can’t leave a guy hanging for 24 or 48 hours just because you live in Monaco, that can’t happen.”
In May, Carrick was appointed on a permanent basis until 2028 having taken interim charge in January, but the club have struggled so far this term. United are in the Premier League relegation zone with just eight points having won only one of their 10 league matches this season.
Pochettino has plenty of Premier League experience and has previously been touted as a future United boss, and Neville praised the Argentinian for the physical fitness instilled within his teams in a warning to the current Old Trafford crop.
“One thing we do know about him is he does run his players, he does put physical fitness really at the top of the agenda. He’s always had fit teams, whether they’ve won or not won,” Neville said.
“We used to train at Tottenham’s training ground when I was with England and they used to have that Tuesday – I’m calling it terror Tuesday, but it wasn’t called terror Tuesday – it was called something like that, his run was famous at that time in terms of what he does with every team, he does run them.
“They were always fit his teams, to be fair. That’s one thing I think he will deal with straight away, he’s obviously got a lot of experience now, he knows how to coach a team.”