Michael Carrick will remain Manchester United manager for now but he's hanging on to his job by a thread

Michael Carrick is on thin ice as Manchester United manager. And as the club weighs up its options, Sir Alex Ferguson's three past endorsements only underscore how arduous finding an elite successor is.

Carrick's United tenure has fallen victim to a sharp downward spiral. After being appointed as interim in January following Ruben Amorim's dismissal, the Englishman thrived, securing Champions League football and third place in the Premier League.

However, after being moderately backed in the summer, his team have dwelt in the stalls this campaign. United's only league win this season came against Ipswich Town and as things stand, they're 16th in the table. Not to mention, they've been ousted from the Carabao Cup by Brighton and their last European appearance was a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Como.

When Carrick's men faced Bournemouth on Sunday and were hammered 3-0, many believed he would get the chop. But United have decided to hand the manager a stay of execution following crisis talks involving chief executive Omar Berrada, technical director Jason Wilcox and co-owners Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family.

Reports suggest that United's reluctance to bin Carrick is primarily due to the market being completely devoid of elite, ready-made replacements. In fact, looking back at the three managers Ferguson has championed or coveted over the years only highlights United's current predicament: every single coach Ferguson would trust with the keys is out of reach. Mirror Football has a look at the trio.

Massimiliano Allegri

When Erik ten Hag was shown the exit at United in October 2024, the search to replace him eventually landed the club with Amorim. But reports in Italy at the time suggested Ferguson would have preferred a different manager.

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According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Ferguson flew the flag for Massimiliano Allegri, whom he supposedly viewed as his ideal successor to Ten Hag, as he had always been an admirer of Italian football.

Allegri made a name for himself as manager of AC Milan, winning the Scudetto in his debut 2010/11 season. He joined Juventus in 2014 and won five consecutive Serie A titles and reached two Champions League finals. He left in 2019 before returning two years later, adding a Coppa Italia to his CV.

The 59-year-old's second stint at Juventus ended in 2024 and it was then that Ferguson reportedly recommended him. But Amorim was preferred and Allegri briefly joined AC Milan. He is currently Napoli's manager and is not on United's radar, having only joined the club in July following Antonio Conte's departure.

Mauricio Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino has always been admired by Ferguson, who famously took the Argentine out for lunch in London in 2016 and once described him as the best manager in the Premier League.

Pochettino transformed the Lilywhites into Champions League regulars during his reign from 2014 to 2019 and before he joined Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, Ferguson named him as his ideal choice to replace the under-pressure Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Eventually, once Solskjaer was sacked and both Carrick and Ralf Rangnick filled the gap, Ten Hag was hired. Pochettino is not a straightforward option right now, though.

He's the head coach of the United States men's national team, and he was at the helm during their round-of-16 run at World Cup 2026. He is contracted through to World Cup 2030 and it is highly unlikely he'll be tempted away from his post until then.

Pep Guardiola

The last name on this list is the only one currently without a job. But unfortunately for United, pigs might fly before he joins them. Reflecting in his new book, Games of My Life, Ferguson penned: "Over the past ten years, I have often wondered what might have happened if the dinner I had with Pep Guardiola in New York in 2012 had taken place a couple of months earlier.

"At the time, I hadn't decided for certain that I was going to retire. And Pep was convinced that, after achieving huge success in just four years in La Liga with a Continental treble as well as a League and Champions League double, he wanted to try life in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.

"If I could rewind time, we would have dined some months earlier, I would have poured plenty of Tignanello (Italian wine) and I would have tried my hardest to convince him that his future lay in Manchester. Unfortunately for us, it did. Enough said."

Evidently, Ferguson would have loved to have seen Guardiola manage United, but that will never happen. The man himself has ruled it out. In 2020, the ex-Manchester City manager was asked whether he could ever be coaxed into joining rivals United. His reply was blunt.

"After training City, I won't train United, just like I would never train Real Madrid," he said. "Definitely not. If I didn't have any [other] offers, I would be in the Maldives."