Another week, another impending appointment of a Manchester United caretaker boss.
Like the characters who conveniently pop up during long-running soap operas to pivot a plot line, so United turn to temporary head coaches – not “managers” these days – to keep the show on the road.
Having asked Darren Fletcher to take charge of games against Burnley (a 2-2 draw) and Brighton (a 2-1 defeat) in the wake of Ruben Amorim’s sacking, United are now on the verge of appointing Michael Carrick until the end of the season.
Since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement at the end of the 2012-13 season, it will be the seventh time the club have appointed a temporary boss in between all the permanent head coaches who have ultimately failed.
So, what do you need to do to be United’s interim leader? The Athletic looks at the dos and don’ts for Carrick.
Do… get off to a winning start
It sounds obvious but given, by definition, an interim manager arrives with the club in a state of flux, the last thing he needs is for results to spiral at the start of his reign and for that sense of crisis to persist.
When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over from Jose Mourinho in December 2018, the mood was low. Players had grown weary of Mourinho’s tactics and spikiness and needed someone to make them feel good about themselves.
Solskjaer did that, and he did it not just with his more conciliatory personality, but in his results. The tone was set by an opening 5-1 win at Cardiff City, one of 14 victories in Solskjaer’s first 17 games. There were two draws in that period and the only defeat was against Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of a Champions League last-16 tie that United famously won in the return fixture in France.
That new-manager bounce didn’t last forever, but it felt good at the time.
The Ole Gunnar Solskjaer bounce did not last long-term for Manchester United (Ian Kington/AFP via Getty Images)
Don’t… sound off in press conferences
United have had their fill of head coaches whose media appearances were characterised by blunt-force assaults, one of which ultimately prefaced Amorim (who had previously suggested his squad was the worst in United’s history) getting sacked.
Caretakers need to be more considered and judicious in their language — something Solskjaer made a point of being in 2018. In contrast, Ralf Rangnick pulled out the flamethrower when he lost patience with the deficiencies of the squad in April 2022.
“You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are,” he said. “Now it’s about how do we solve them? It’s not enough to do some minor amendments — cosmetic things.
“In medicine, you would say that this is an operation of the open heart. If this happens and everyone has realised that this has to happen, and if people want to work together, then it makes sense and I believe it doesn’t take two or three years to change those things. This can happen within one year.
“For sure (strong leadership is needed). This is something that not just one single person as a manager can do.”
The problem was Rangnick didn’t have the results behind him — he won just 11 of 29 games in charge after taking over from Solskjaer in late 2021 — for those damning words to have their full effect.
He had been supposed to stay on at United as a consultant following his interim spell on the touchline but Erik ten Hag was not willing to work with him when he got the manager’s job in the summer of 2022.
Do… settle it all down
When United sacked David Moyes in April 2014, it was the first time the club could put out a statement online confirming that a manager had been dismissed. The internet was only invented in 1989 – three years after Ron Atkinson lost his job at Old Trafford and Ferguson replaced him.
So it was a turbulent time when Moyes was sacked 10 months into his six-year contract as Ferguson’s successor, as United failed to qualify for the Champions League and player-coach Giggs was given the reins.
Fans were keen to see Ryan Giggs installed as caretaker manager in 2014 (Andrew Yates/AFP via Getty Images)
United’s record appearance maker was always going to have the goodwill of supporters, and there was not long left in the season, but he made a point of not promising too much.
“I’m going to try and bring back some smiles on the faces of the fans, and look forward to the game on Saturday and prepare as best we can,” Giggs told a press conference in April 2014.
Don’t… overstay your welcome
If you do a good job, it is not always the right decision to stay on.
Solskjaer’s great start in interim charge led to him getting the job permanently in March 2019. United didn’t finish that season well, with just two wins out of 10, and while there were some highlights in the ensuing two seasons — they finished third and second in the league, and reached a Europa League final — it all fizzled out in the autumn of 2021 when Solskjaer was sacked.
Carrick, in some ways, set the blueprint in the immediate aftermath of Solskjaer’s departure. He was given three games in charge and, while it was clear he wasn’t going to get the gig for more than that, he showed no desire to be kept on for longer. Instead, a 3-2 win against Arsenal proved what he told the BBC was a “perfect” send-off.
Ruud van Nistelrooy followed a similar template in 2024, winning three out of four games (technically the highest win percentage in United’s managerial history) in his interim stint between Ten Hag and Amorim. If nothing else, it’s a nice line for his CV.
Do… make changes if needed
Darren Fletcher, the interim for the interim, immediately ditched Amorim’s beloved back three for a back four — no surprise given sporting director Jason Wilcox and co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe were fans of the latter system.
Interim managers do not get pre-seasons, so the scope for wholesale change is always limited, and while they do sometimes get transfer windows, there won’t be much spent in this winter’s one by United.
Fletcher was bold with his substitutions in the 2-2 draw with Burnley last Wednesday and turned to youth by bringing on 18-year-old Shea Lacey, as well as tinkering with the formation. Yet it is not always about structures and formations. It is also about injecting belief and energy back into the players.
Shea Lacey was given chances by interim manager Darren Fletcher (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
United’s dressing room did not turn against Amorim like they may have done with previous managers, but there’s still a need for the interim figure to re-energise the squad.
Giggs, Solskjaer and Carrick all spoke about reminding the players of what it means to play for United.
“I remember coming out of a meeting and I heard Ashley Young say, ‘Thank f**k we are talking about being Man United again’,” Solskjaer told The Overlap in March 2024.
Don’t… forget the history, but don’t overdo it
Fletcher saying he rang Ferguson before accepting the interim job was not surprising but still shows how much the club harks back to the past and those involved still bow to the former manager.
Yet it is no bad thing to get the buzzwords out about values and attacking football, if only to reassure the fanbase. Giggs and Solskjaer said plenty of them when they got the roles.
Obviously, it is even better if you can get a United side playing with the hard-working and attacking intent of their teams of old. But it is also important to remember that United have to build a new future and that the remainder of this season is about qualifying for Europe after missing out this time.
Carrick’s appointment, in that sense, needs to be more than just a nostalgic comfort blanket.