Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has now dropped a clear-cut assessment on former teammate Michael Carrick becoming the permanent manager of Manchester United.
Michael Carrick became the seventh permanent Manchester United manager in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era after Ineos made his appointment permanent last week.
The 44-year-old United legend turned the tide of the Red Devils’ 2025-26 Premier League season after he made his stunning return to Old Trafford back in January.
Carrick replaced Ruben Amorim in the Old Trafford hot seat and the former Red Devils interim boss led the club from seventh place to third in the Premier League.
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Why Gary Neville thinks Man Utd’s Premier League win over Brighton was essential for Michael Carrick
The Red Devils had already secured a third-place finish this season and a place in the Champions League for the 2026-27 campaign ahead of the Brighton match.
Brighton hosted Manchester United at the Amex on Sunday afternoon and the Red Devils produced a strong Premier League performance overall in their 3-0 win.
Man Utd’s encounter with Brighton was Carrick’s first match in charge as the permanent head coach after he was named as Ruben Amorim’s long-term successor.
Gary Neville feels that Carrick signed the season off on a high note after the players ensured that they treated the visit to the Amex with serious intent behind them.
“Yeah, and [Bryan] Mbeumo scored again,” he said on Sky Sports’ The Gary Neville Podcast.
“So yeah, no, a really good finish for Michael Carrick. I think it was important that they didn’t just go, ‘We did it. Look at, you know, we got third place.’
“That would have been the wrong message to send, I think. So, a really good day for Michael Carrick, a good day for Bruno Fernandes.”
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What a performance to end the season!
Michael Carrick on the significance of the last few weeks of his Man Utd reign, both interim and permanent
Carrick will remain at Old Trafford now and the United legend is expected to face much more pressure going into the 2026-27 Premier League campaign.
The United manager admitted that he was thrilled with what he had seen from the Red Devils players in the tail end of the 2025-26 Premier League season.
“Yeah, as you’d imagine, delighted, absolutely delighted in so many ways with today and particularly over the last two or three weeks, where our position is kind of cemented, we know where we’re at in the league, and it’s easy to drift and lose a bit momentum, lose a bit focus,” he said at his post-match press conference, as per Manchester United’s official website.
“We’ve treated it as [if] it’s all one season going into the next one, really. It’s not ended here. I think we wanted to keep building and pushing.
“Credit to the players, it’s not easy to do it sometimes, as much as we’d expect it and hope for it – I’ve been there – to find that spark.
“But the hunger was there, you could see it, and it was probably the toughest team to play that type of game, in the heat, the way they move the ball.
“So, it needed a really strong mentality, which I was absolutely delighted with because that’s the foundation we need to show and have to give us the confidence to move forward.”
United will not return to action now until July for the start of their pre-season summer tour under Red Devils boss Carrick.
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