INEOS are at another major crossroads in their miserable Manchester United tenure with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and co set to sack a third manager they have backed in three years

INEOS have failed at Manchester United by getting virtually every major decision wrong in their three years in charge of football decisions at Old Trafford. But Sir Jim Ratcliffe will likely finally get one right just by attempting to save face.

Michael Carrick’s time as United boss is clearly up, even if he has been told he'll take charge of his flops when they face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. The legendary midfielder gave fans some of the best months supporting the club post Sir Alex Ferguson during his interim spell in charge at the back end of last season.

But just months into his two-year contract as permanent manager, the wheels came off in remarkably quick style, even for how dysfunctional United have been since Ferguson and former chief executive David Gill left Old Trafford.

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Somehow, Carrick is still working at Carrington, despite it being widely expected that he would be sacked after United were battered by Bournemouth, following being humbled by Como in the Champions League in a disastrous four days where they lost 7-1 across the two games.

Currently, Carrick is still in charge by virtue of a humiliating stay of execution. Ratcliffe, chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox can’t even get the timing of sacking the club icon right.

But Carrick is sure to be out of the door soon enough if INEOS have any sense left, and then comes the trouble of the bungling hierarchy trying to get a fourth managerial appointment right following the ill-fated decisions to back and award Erik ten Hag a new contract then fire him, the tragic tenure of Ruben Amorim, and now Carrick going down as the ultimate fall guy of an incompetent board.

Current managerial markets have Eddie Howe as favourite to land the job, with the former Newcastle United boss the obvious candidate that fits proven Premier League experience and a history of making mid-table sides better, which is how good these United players have looked so far.

However, Howe was first brought to the attention of the INEOS board when Ten Hag was sacked as a potential successor. After waiting months for sporting director Dan Ashworth to finish his gardening leave having quit Newcastle, so he could join the United set-up, Ashworth then got the boot for ultimately pushing for the appointment of Howe over Amorim, who was Wilcox’s choice.

Ashworth was the first man, and so far bafflingly the only one, to take a bullet in that United hierarchy as he was sacked just four months into the job. Presumably for telling his colleagues ‘told you so’ as Amorim dragged United towards the relegation zone.

And the now chief football officer for the FA will be sticking his tongue out and waggling his fingers around as he watches everything he stood against crumble at United and come back full circle to the doorstep of the man he wanted.

Howe is top of the bill for his overall track record at Newcastle and ability to build a physical and dominating side, which United are the complete opposite of.

The idea he could replicate that at Old Trafford is impossible. His Newcastle side had consistently some of the highest running figures in the league, which is alien to this United squad.

All you need to do is look at the complete avoidance of tracking back, chasing your man and simply getting into a challenge to know Howe would be attempting to coach petulant, ego-mad kids something they would never buy into.

Newcastle physically dominated their opponents – the midfield trio of Joelinton, Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali were everywhere in matches. The idea of Andrey Santos, Kobbie Mainoo and Youri Tielemans becoming his new mad dogs is lunacy.

United have just undergone a major midfield rebuild – one that has so far looked a complete joke and actually the only effort INEOS put into the window – that engine room simply will not change and Howe will have no chance at getting his style across.

Howe would be a low appointment by United. A CV that reads one Carabao Cup, a second final lost to Ten Hag, and a fourth place finish in the league followed by a drop to seventh and a group stage exit in the Champions League the club dreamed so much about, shouldn’t even be under consideration. Yet ultimately, here we are.

But the best other options on the table at the minute are Antonio Conte, who could quite literally make the club explode with his confrontational nature, and Julian Nagelsmann, who failed with Germany and couldn’t manage the egos at Bayern Munich.

Ratcliffe may well have to plate himself up a huge slice of humble pie and prepare for his end of days at Old Trafford, if and when Howe leads United further into the abyss, with his dire football and Jason Tindall’s antics adding insult to inevitable defeats.