Gary Neville has urged Manchester United to not appoint Michael Carrick as their long-term manager, insisting that they should go for the best available candidate instead.
Carrick has been in the role as Red Devils head coach since January, when Ruben Amorim was sacked, with his contract expiring at the end of the season.
Since his arrival in the Old Trafford dugout, United have won five of their six Premier League matches and drawing the other to see them propel up the table to fourth – and just three points behind Aston Villa in third.
Their fine run of form included back-to-back wins against Manchester City and Arsenal – with both rivals vying for the title.
United’s resurgence has led to many calling for Carrick to remain in the role beyond the end of the season but his former team-mate Neville disagrees, citing that the potential with the best cv should get it instead.
‘I think Manchester United have to pursue another manager right now around the fact of you don’t know how the results are going to go,’ he told Sky Sports Monday Night Football show ahead of United’s 1-0 win at Everton.
Gary Neville believes Michael Carrick (centre) shouldn’t be given the full-time Man United job
Neville has called for the Red Devils to hire the best candidate available instead of Carrick
Carrick guided United to a 1-0 win at Everton on Monday night – their fifth win in six games
‘Little things like [Thomas] Tuchel re-signing with England does start to take away the options for Manchester United and they don’t harm Michael’s chances of getting the job. If he gets United into the Champions League there will be a lot of fever around that he should be appointed.
‘I’m not against him being appointed, I love him to bits and think that he’s done an incredible job so far. I just feel that Manchester United should go for the best class of manager available.
‘They’ve had young and inexperienced managers in the last two picks which have not quite worked. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has come in before as an ex-player who did a very good job for a couple of years but that didn’t work in the end. So I just feel removing as much risk as possible is the right option.
‘But people who know me will know that’s not personal against Michael because I love him to bits. He’s a great lad, a great player and someone who’s doing a very good job as a coach now.’
Despite his reluctance to give Carrick the job, Neville does believe the 44-year-old will steer them to Champions League qualification come May.
‘There was a period for about five or six weeks where they played games where you kept thinking they could go into the top four and they didn’t. And now they are, they’ve got an incredible opportunity to finish in the top four,’ he said on the Gary Neville Podcast.
‘I think they will. The other teams start playing in Europe, they’ve got distractions. United haven’t got any distractions.
‘That doesn’t mean anything; they’ve had no game for two weeks and haven’t played particularly well here [at Everton] but I just think they’re now starting to get over the line in games where they wouldn’t have done before.
‘I think they could finish third, I really do think they could finish third. I said a couple of weeks ago I thought Villa might just get pulled back a little bit.
‘These teams [Aston Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool] have got European football in front of them and that’s a big distraction. Manchester United don’t have that and I think they’re in a decent place.
‘You look at the players out there, they go over to celebrate, they look like they’re in a decent sort of mood. They’re winning when they play well, they’re winning when they don’t play well, they’re picking up a point when they didn’t play well at West Ham, so all the right things are starting to happen.
‘They’ve hit a really good run, I do think they’ll finish third or fourth.
‘I’ve probably said at times in this last three months: Manchester United have no chance of finishing the Champions League, but this is just a bizarre season.
‘Teams are dropping points: Chelsea dropped points against Burnley on Saturday, Villa dropped points, Liverpool obviously did win in the end, but yeah I think United get there now and that’ll be a big move in terms of where they were last season.
‘I think it’d be a big move to get into Champions League, considering where they were a few weeks ago, obviously when they sack a manager and you don’t think for the life of you that they can go and beat Arsenal and Manchester City and everyone else that they’ve beaten in this last few weeks. It’s been an incredible points total that’s been pulled together.
‘And I think they’re now, I won’t say clear favourites to finish in the top four, but they are in pole position.’