“The boys are feeling it,” Carrick said. “I have mixed emotions to have that connection with the supporters in the moment we're in. I need time to digest that. I appreciate their support but the situation is where it's at. We haven't been good enough...

"It was a tough day for the players. We went into the game having been rocked. You can feel that. They're really hurting and disappointed in there. It's not a nice feeling. You have to accept it, we're in that situation.

"It's a tough situation. What is next? I don't know. I'll always do what's best for this football club. I don't change that now. I love what I do. I love the responsibility. But we'll have to wait and see."

While he wasn’t explicitly saying goodbye, Carrick’s comments come in a long line of United bosses’ not-quite-farewells. Even those who weren’t necessarily resigned to leaving were still able to make sure their feelings were well-known at the end.

Carrick will be the seventh permanent post-Fergie manager to come and go - and it really does look like when rather than if. Here’s what the other six said before they moved on.

David Moyes

Moyes struggled for much of his sole season in charge and eventually bit the bullet in April 2014 after a defeat against his former employers, Everton. The result meant United were mathematically out of contention to qualify for the Champions League - little did they know it would be far from the last time.

“It does [hurt not to qualify] because it’s part of this club. We want to be in it and we’re doing everything we can to get ourselves back in it as quickly as we can.

“We’ve already [started rebuilding] and we’re doing that behind the scenes just now. So we’ll try and do everything we possibly can to get a team which is capable of winning better than we have done recently.”

There was a sense that Moyes was a little taken aback by the timing of his exit, despite those struggles. However, that wasn’t the case with everyone.

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Louis van Gaal

Van Gaal bowed out with victory in the 2016 FA Cup final, with Jose Mourinho linked with the position long before officially taking charge. In his press conference directly after that Wembley win, he preferred to focus on his achievements rather than his future.

“I show you the cup and I don’t discuss it with my friends of the media who [were] already sacking me for six months. Which manager can do that, what I have done?

“It was three years ago that United had a title and I’m very proud that I’m the first manager after the period of Sir Alex Ferguson [to win one]. I have made a picture with him because that’s history.”

Jose Mourinho

Mourinho delivered a pair of trophies in his first season but was on the wane by year three. In what would prove to be his final set of post-match interviews, in the aftermath of a 3-1 loss at Liverpool, he fielded questions about whether he’d lost the dressing room - something which few bosses have been able to come back from.

"I believe they are honest and you believe they are dishonest. A footballer has to give the maximum every day, every match, every minute, it doesn't matter the manager, it doesn't matter anything,” he said.

"The club that plays him, the fans that are 24 hours per day in love with our club. It's about respect for the club and the fans. The players that don't do the maximum you are calling them dishonest. I don't call them dishonest at all.”

A 4-1 defeat at Watford was the final straw for Solskjaer, just a few months after he took United to the Europa League final. When he spoke in the aftermath of the defeat, he cut a resigned figure.

"The positive reaction was too late - it was at half-time,” the Norwegian said. “Second-half was a good performance until we got the sending off.

“The first-half is the worst we've played and it's hard for me to explain why we played the way we did and allowed them to get in our box from nothing. The goalkeeper could go up to the half-way line and put it in the box - we were outfought.

"The boys are in a terrible place in their heads now - we have let ourselves down and the fans down. It's hard to stand here and explain that but that's football and we have to take the flack for it.

"You look at the chances they created and the goals they scored, they out-fought us, they won challenges they won second balls. Nothing you would be surprised about them trying to do. I'm just disappointed we couldn't deal with it better."

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Ralf Rangnick

Rangnick was only an interim appointment and perhaps this allowed him to be less diplomatic in his comments and we've included those here for that reason. In April 2022, when his time was already coming to an end, he issued a brutal warning ahead of the arrival of his successor, Ten Hag.

“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.

“This is something that not just one single person as a manager can do. With all respect to Jurgen [Klopp] and Pep [Guardiola] I’m sure that they didn’t do all the things themselves. “There were also other people involved [at Liverpool and Manchester City], people in certain positions, no matter what area it was, in order to rebuild and build something we want to build here. In all areas you have to have top people and they have to work together in a very close, reliable way.”

Ten Hag’s final defeat was a controversial one. Opponents West Ham United won courtesy of a VAR-awarded penalty. In his final post-match interview, the former Ajax manager took aim at that refereeing decision but also appeared to expect to continue at the helm for longer than he did.

“I feel really compassionate for my players. They played so well, they fight so hard together, they are so determined to come into those situations and so not to [kill off West Ham] is very frustrating,” he said.

“Football is not always the best team winning. Today it’s very obvious and clear. Today we were far better than the opponent and there are two things: we didn’t score and it was a very poor decision from the referee – on-field and definitely also off-field.”

“I think we played very good football, the first hour it was really enjoyable to watch our team – so dynamic, so much variation, so creative, so many chances. That is the only thing we miss – killing in front of the goal. Sometimes you are in this pattern and you have to break the pattern but it will come because our players are clinical and they can be relentless in front of the goal, so it will come.”

Amorim, unlike his direct predecessor, appeared well aware of the way the wind was blowing. He appeared to almost dare the club to dismiss him after a draw with Leeds in January, while also suggesting the media had received selective information from.

“I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach of Manchester United. And that is clear,” he said. “I know that my name is not [Thomas] Tuchel, it's not [Antonio] Conte, it's not [Jose] Mourinho, but I'm the manager of Manchester United.

"I just want to say that I'm going to be the manager of this team, not just the coach. And I was really clear on that.

"And that is going to finish in 18 months and then everyone is going to move on. That was the deal. That is my job, not to be a coach. If people cannot handle the Gary Neville and the criticism of everything, we need to change the club.

"No, guys, I just want to say that I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach. And every department, the scouting department, the sports director needs to do their job. I will do mine for 18 months and then we move on."