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Michael Carrick’s position at Manchester United is under serious threat after a poor start to the season which plumbed to new depths on Wednesday night when the club were trounced 4-1 by Como.
Here Telegraph Sport looks at some of the candidates who could replace Carrick if he is sacked and analyses the case for and against and their suitability for the role.
For starters, Howe is available and would spare United another substantial compensation bill and the hassle of trying to extract another manager from another club. The 48-year-old also has form for turning around a big club in trouble. Newcastle were at risk of relegation when Howe was appointed but he led the Tyneside club to Champions League qualification on two occasions and ended their 70-year wait for a domestic trophy by winning the Carabao Cup in 2025.
He has a proven Premier League track record - he managed Bournemouth before Newcastle - and Champions League experience, Howe has demonstrated he can build squads, repurpose maligned players (Joelinton is a good example) and work collegiately. United need some consistency and stability and Howe could provide that.
Howe’s best sides at Newcastle were physical, aggressive and athletic, but he would not be inheriting a group like that at Old Trafford. And would he have the personality to galvanise the squad and a fanbase that is at war with the ownership? Howe is calm and level-headed like Carrick but managing United requires a certain X-factor. It takes a certain character to handle the expectations of a super-club with the starker realities of the current situation.
Still only 33, the Texas-born German has wasted no time forging a burgeoning reputation for himself at Brighton after catching their eye at St Pauli. Brighton have been scoring for fun this season and look a decent bet for a top-five finish having developed into an aggressive, high-intensity side under Hurzeler’s sharp eye. Such swashbuckling football would certainly play well with United fans. One of the most exciting young coaches in Europe, Brighton’s 3-0 dismantling of champions Arsenal last month was another feather in his cap and he has a very cocksure, confident manner for one so young. Just like Mikel Arteta, whose tactics Hurzeler was unafraid to criticise last season.
Hurzeler only signed a three-year contract extension in May and Telegraph Sport understands he does not have a release clause which means the prospect of having to pay a world record fee to prise him away.
Finances are already tight at Old Trafford and forking out yet more in compensation would be far from ideal. He has also had the benefit of working at a club who are masters at recruitment whereas he would inherit a Frankenstein squad at Old Trafford assembled by five different managers at a club who are notoriously poor buyers and sellers.
Despite his growing reputation, Hurzeler remains inexperienced and has simply not encountered the kind of scrutiny in his coaching career to date that would come with managing United. He can also be abrasive although plenty of these United players need putting in their place. United’s punt on another young, up-and-coming manager in Ruben Amorim backfired and, while Hurzeler is accustomed to the Premier League, it would still be a risk.
If United want a big name manager and personality with a proven track record of winning at big clubs then the demanding Italian is the best available candidate out there. Conte improvised to brilliant effect to lead Chelsea to the Premier League title in 2016-17 and has won Serie A titles with Juventus, Inter Milan and Napoli. Conte knows how to organise teams and make them run and work hard and if United were after someone who could make an immediate impact given the importance of Champions League qualification this season, they could do a lot worse. Having left Napoli in the summer, he is available and it is understood he would jump at the chance to take over at Old Trafford.
United fans would doubtless welcome a manager who challenges a hierarchy and ownership that seem to lurch from one mistake to another and are deeply unpopular. But Conte’s profile does not fit with the collegiate head-coach model the club now favour. There would undoubtedly be fears in the corridors of power at Old Trafford that bringing in a confrontational character like the 57-year-old could have parallels to Jose Mourinho’s tenure as United manager. That said, it is worth remembering Mourinho won two trophies and no United manager in the post-Ferguson era has come close to his haul of 81 points in 2017-18 when they finished second.
For all Conte’s success, many of his previous jobs have ended in acrimony and United’s top brass may look more at what happened at Tottenham than at Chelsea. There is a strong argument United’s squad needs shaking from their comfort zone and there would be no shortage of fireworks with Conte in charge.
Nagelsmann is well known to Christopher Vivell, United’s director of recruitment, and will feel he has a point to prove after his reputation took a hit first with Bayern Munich and then the German national team. Still only 39, he is well known for his attention to detail and has experience of managing under great scrutiny.
Nagelsmann has never managed in the Premier League before and his time at Bayern and Germany might raise some red flags. There have been reports of clashes and fallouts with senior players and plenty are still wondering whether he is the real deal or still living off the reputation earned at RB Leipzig.
McKenna was the first-team coach during Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign as manager having previously worked with the academy set up before being promoted by Mourinho. So he is familiar with the club and its expectations, even if being on the backroom staff is very different from actually being the man in the hotseat.
McKenna earned a reputation as a smart tactician after winning back-to-back promotions with Ipswich Town and his availability also works in his favour. He has been interviewed before by United’s current hierarchy when they were canvassing for potential replacements for Erik ten Hag before extending the Dutchman’s contract and is the kind of person the club would feel they could work with. He also knows many of the players.
McKenna’s sole season in the Premier League ended in relegation with Ipswich and there are doubts over whether he would be thick-skinned enough to withstand the Old Trafford pressure cooker. Fans might also feel it is more of the same after Carrick. While different personalities, they worked closely together under Solskjaer at Old Trafford and it would hardly feel a transformative appointment. Equally, would the 40-year-old have the standing and gravitas to shake these players out of their slumber?
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