Carrick unclear on own future but adamant brilliant Bruno's 'not someone we want to lose'
YOU'RE STAYING: Manchester United's Matheus Cunha (left) celebrates scoring their side's second goal of the game with Bruno Fernandes and team-mates during the Premier League match at Old Trafford, Manchester. Pic: Martin Rickett/PA Wire
Michael Carrick has to manage a lot of uncertainty at the moment. But while he doesn’t know if he will be Manchester United’s head coach beyond the summer, he is sure that he wants Bruno Fernandes to stick around.
Fernandes was United’s key player, which he has been so often this season, as United defeated Aston Villa, a seventh victory in nine games since Carrick came in as interim head coach in January and began the task of turning round a season that had been falling apart on Ruben Amorim’s watch.
Two assists from the captain were crucial: He delivered the 53rd-minute corner from which Casemiro looped in an angled header for United’s opener. After Ross Barkley had swept in a Villa equaliser, Fernandes provided the perfectly weighted 71st-minute pass on to which Matheus Cunha sprinted to steer the home side back in front, before Benjamin Sesko’s deflected third secured victory.
The subject of Fernandes’ future at Old Trafford has not always been a straightforward one this season, though. In December, the captain spoke of his “hurt” that United were prepared to let him go to Saudi Arabia last summer. When the interview surfaced, United insisted that they had no desire to sell Fernandes, but there is a complication: While his contract runs until 2027, and the club have an option to extend it by a further 12 months, the midfielder did negotiate a clause in it that allows him to leave if a club offer £57million. He is a player United can ill-afford to lose: His two assists against Villa took his Premier League total for the season to 16 – a club record.
On the subject, Carrick is playing it cool. “In terms of the club and moving forward, it’s difficult for me to get involved in too much of that,” he said. “Bruno's definitely not someone we'd want to lose. I can say that, but I can't read what the summer or beyond that holds. But certainly he's important for us.”
This has become Carrick’s default setting when asked about unknowns: Keep calm and carry on. It is the same whenever he faces a question about his own chances of getting the head coach position full-time. Wayne Rooney, his former United team-mate and still a close friend, said on Sunday that Carrick is the man. Sir Jim Ratcliffe has refused point blank in recent days to give any kind of steer.
If the noise around his future is an issue, Carrick isn’t showing it. “It's not that much noise, is it?” he smiled post-match. “It doesn't affect me one bit. I'm in this position at the moment, doing the best I can and loving it. We want to make the team as good as we can, we want to keep improving everything, and whatever's going to happen is going to happen.”
What is going to happen, at the current rate of progress, is that Manchester United will qualify for next season’s Champions League, which would probably end any thoughts Fernandes might have of going elsewhere, and might even get Carrick a permanent job. It will not, in all likelihood, change the decision to allow Casemiro to leave when his contract expires at the end of the season, even though the Stretford End chanted “one more year” after he had headed United in front.
“In some ways the fact that it was decided makes things a little bit easier, and everyone understands the situation really,” were Carrick’s words when asked about the 34-year-old. It suggested that, while there are so many things to figure out at Old Trafford between now and the end of the season, Casemiro’s exit this summer – announced by the club last month – is not going to be pulled in for review.
While Carrick deals with uncertainty, Unai Emery’s job, increasingly, is to manage morale. Aston Villa, title contenders barely two months ago, have now lost three successive league matches, and look as if they might struggle to finish in the top five. Denied Champions League football on the final day of last season, similar agonies now threaten.
Emery was angry with Leon Bailey for losing the ball in the build-up to United’s second goal, and showed it on the touchline. But the Villa head coach has realised that, with injuries, loss of form and fatigue hitting his squad hard, they probably need an arm round the shoulder right now.
“We must get better and we must be stronger in the final matches of the season,” he said.
“I am so motivated with the team to achieve our objective. And I like the challenges we have now in front of us.” Manchester Lammens 6; Dalot 6, Yoro 7, Maguire 7, Shaw 7; Casemiro 7 (Ugarte 90), Mainoo 6; Amad 7, Fernandes 8, Cunha 7; Mbeumo 6 (Sesko 75, 7).
Bayindir, Heaven, Malacia, Mazraoui, Mount, T Fletcher, Zirkzee.
Casemiro, Yoro, Maguire
Martinez 7; Bogarde 6, Konsa 6, Mings 6, Digne 6 (Maatsen 82, 6); Barkley 7 (Douglas Luiz 82, 6), Onana 6; Rogers 5, McGinn 6 (Bailey 61, 6), Buendia 6 (Garcia 86); Watkins 5 (Abraham 61, 6).
Bizot, Lindelof, Torres, Elliott.
Watkins, Buendia
Anthony Taylor
73,997
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
