Gary Neville spent his entire playing career at Old Trafford. On Thursday he called the manner of Michael Carrick’s dismissal disgusting and said it would leave the club open to legal action in any other industry.
The sacking landed in the middle of an international break and in the middle of the training week. Carrick was still running sessions at Carrington on Wednesday while INEOS executives were in Monaco closing out his dismissal and advancing talks with Mauricio Pochettino, Neville told Sky Sports News.
“In the last 24-48 hours it’s been spectacularly bad to be in Monaco as an executive and an owner whilst your manager, who’s a club legend, is taking training on the pitch and simultaneously approaching the US Soccer Federation to approach Mauricio Pochettino,” Neville said.
The worst start since Ferguson arrived
Carrick had been in the full-time job for less than six months. He signed a two-year permanent contract in the summer after guiding United to a third-place Premier League finish and Champions League qualification as interim manager, winning 12 of 17 games in the second half of last season.
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This season has run the other way. Three wins in 15 matches in all competitions and one win from ten Premier League games left United in the relegation zone. It is the club’s worst start to a league campaign in 40 years.
Pochettino’s nine-day countdown to Anfield
The Argentine has agreed a two-and-a-half-year contract, with United paying a release clause of around £7m to take him out of his US Soccer Federation deal. He will see out the United States’ two remaining fixtures against Haiti first, then travel to England.
That leaves roughly nine days of work before the trip to Anfield on Sunday 22 November.
Neville used the same broadcast to set out what he wants the incoming manager to insist on before he even picks a team: full control of recruitment, a significant budget from the board, and defenders brought in during the January transfer window.
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