Neville Calls Carrick’s Treatment “Disgusting” and Tells Pochettino to Demand Recruitment Control

• Gary Neville called Manchester United’s handling of Michael Carrick’s sacking “disgusting” and said it would be constructive dismissal in any other industry, per Sky Sports.
• Carrick took training in Manchester while United’s executives met in Monaco and lined up Mauricio Pochettino as his replacement.
• Neville says Pochettino must take control of recruitment, demand a massive budget and secure money for defenders in January.

Neville Says the People Running United Keep Making Poor Choices

Gary Neville called Manchester United’s treatment of Michael Carrick “disgusting” on Thursday, the day the club sacked its head coach. Carrick was still taking training in Manchester while United’s executives met in Monaco and lined up Mauricio Pochettino to replace him. Neville says that in any other industry the same conduct would amount to constructive dismissal. He accused the club of indecision, a lack of authority and poor leadership, and said nobody comes out of the affair well. His case against the club’s leadership runs from a lap of honour on the pitch to a £1.6 billion squad.

Monaco, a Training Pitch and a Deal in Principle

United sacked Carrick on Thursday morning, a day after chief executive Omar Berrada, director of football Jason Wilcox and minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe met in Monaco. A full agreement in principle has been reached between United and Pochettino, and talks between the club and the US Soccer Federation, which has Pochettino under contract, are at the paperwork and regulatory stage.

Carrick, a former United midfielder, was appointed in January after Ruben Amorim’s departure and earned a permanent two-year contract after winning 12 of his 17 games to secure Champions League qualification. Three wins in 15 matches this season cost him the job, and United sit 18th in the Premier League with eight points from 10 games. His exit arrives as Premier League sacking season gets under way.

Neville had questioned Carrick’s appointment at the end of last season and felt the writing was on the wall after the 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth, when he had already accused the players of downing tools and turning on Carrick. He believes the club hesitated.

“I think after the Bournemouth game I said at the time that Manchester United effectively watched Michael Carrick resign on the pitch at the end of the game with that lap around, that wave goodbye. I think he was expecting it to come at that point and they were indecisive,” he said.

“They obviously felt that they might be able to get to the international break and there could be some sort of pick-up in results, but it’s been a difficult two weeks. Indecision, lack of authority, just basically really poor leadership.”

On the Monaco trip and the way Carrick was treated, Neville was blunt.

“In the last 24-48 hours it’s been spectacularly bad to be in Monaco as an executive and an owner whilst your manager, who’s a club legend, is taking training on the pitch and simultaneously approaching the US Soccer Federation to approach Mauricio Pochettino.”

“It’s just quite simply disgusting. That falls well below the standard of what you would expect in any other business, in any other industry. It would be constructive dismissal and you’d be getting sued.”

“The optics of being in Monaco whilst the team, the staff, the people who are running the club on a day-to-day basis are in Manchester, it’s just not good and it reflects badly on the leadership.”

“I don’t think anybody comes out of this well at all.”

A Fanbase Too Numb to Be Angry

Neville accepts that Carrick must take responsibility for the results, but says the circumstances of his exit are symptomatic of a club that keeps making poor decisions. Asked whether United had hit a new low, he said: “I think this is a low but it just feels like you don’t even get angry anymore; you don’t get animated. You just feel like nothing.”

“It sort of knocks you numb because we’ve seen it so many times. Everybody’s sick of it. The fans are sick of it.”

He did not blame Carrick for taking the job, and Roy Keane felt for Carrick on a podcast earlier this month.

“Michael felt that he was the right man for the job. He wanted to take it and you can’t blame him for that.”

“But at the end of last season, similarly to when they made the decision a few years ago with Erik ten Hag, they had to make better decisions and better choices and the people who are running the club are not making good choices in the football department.”

“I mean there’s some off-the-pitch stuff as well that you could argue is questionable, but the on-the-pitch stuff for the last 12-13 years has been absolutely terrible.”

Neville put numbers on the squad United have built: eight managers and £1.6 billion spent on players.

“I think eight managers, £1.6 billion has been spent on football players and they ended up with a back four on Sunday of [Patrick] Dorgu, [Noussair] Mazraoui, [Leny] Yoro and [Ayden] Heaven and you’ve spent £1.6 billion on players.”

“That’s very difficult to do. You could put every single one of those Manchester United fans in charge of that club or put them in the dugout and you wouldn’t end up with that back four if they were running the club.”

“It’s unbelievable what’s happened.”

Carrick’s own failings were part of the story, in Neville’s view, and so were the summer signings.

“And Michael’s demise in the end is because obviously he’s not been able to get the same tune out of the players. That’s the accountability he has to carry as a manager.”

“But when you sign those midfield players in the summer that are well below the standard of the other midfield players that have gone to other clubs. United were at the bottom of the queue when midfield players were being handed out.”

“They needed midfield players; they needed to bolster that department and they ended up with players ultimately that weren’t wanted by Tottenham, by [Manchester] City and others.”

“And then the back four needed strengthening. That back four, five, six that are playing currently have been there for five, six years, seven years, and they’ve been failing for four, five, six, seven years.”

“Some of them have injury problems as well and some of them are getting on. The likes of Luke Shaw, [Matthijs] De Ligt, [Lisandrp] Martinez are injured quite regularly.”

“They’re inconsistent when they play, and then the rest of the players who are fit, to be fair, don’t meet the standards.”

“So this is not unsurprising totally. I am shocked it’s come this early in the season. I didn’t think it would happen this quickly and I thought Manchester United would have a half-decent season, but it’s come a lot quicker than anybody thought and it seems to be something that happens quite regularly at the club and it’s really disappointing.”

What Pochettino Walks Into

Pochettino has been considered for the United job on previous occasions, and Neville has warned him against believing that a change of manager alone will solve the club’s problems. His first warning is about an early upturn.

“I think the mistake that Mauricio could make if he comes in is that he may get an initial bounce out of them. He may get six months of bounce out of them,” Neville continued.

Neville remembers visiting Pochettino at Tottenham in his early days in charge, when the Argentine was already working out which players he wanted to build around and which he needed to move on.

“I actually remember going to see him at Tottenham in his very early days. We used to, when I was coaching with England, train at Tottenham’s training ground.”

“He set out very quickly within the first six to eight months in the job. He had a whiteboard in front of him in his office with all the players’ names on little markers and he actually moved a group of players over to the left-hand side of the board and said: ‘These are the ones I know I need to get rid of. These are the ones I know I can work with and build around.'”

“He’s got to identify that very quickly at United and I’m sure he will do that. He’s more experienced now than he was when he was at Tottenham.”

“But he’s got a big job to do in exiting players. Manchester United have been really poor at exiting players over the last 10 years. They’ve not done it very well at all.”

The bigger demand, Neville says, is control. United’s summer business has done little to convince him that the existing structure can deliver the players required, and he believes the new head coach must make strong demands before taking the job.

“I’m hoping Mauricio Pochettino has done a couple of things on the way in and I’m hoping he protects himself on his contract because he’ll need to.”

“I’m sure he’s stated that he needs a massive budget. I think he needs defenders straight away to get Manchester United anywhere near where they want to be this season.”

“And the other thing is to make sure that he takes control of the recruitment because it’s quite clear that what happened in the summer is well below the standard again.”

“He’s got to come in here and protect himself against actually the people that he’s working with. They are currently trying to employ him.”

“He needs to make sure he takes the club into his own hands, into his own destiny, make sure he controls his own outcomes and make sure he’s absolutely unequivocal in getting money to improve the defence initially in January and improving the midfield and forward line next summer.”

Neville points to a long list of United managers who have struggled: David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Erik ten Hag, Ruben Amorim and Carrick, while Ralf Rangnick also failed to turn things around. For Neville, that history is a warning to Pochettino.

“I can’t believe Mauricio would have looked at the last 13 years, looked at managers like David Moyes, Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal who are very experienced, brilliant operators in what they do and seen them fall short.”

“He’s then seen talented managers from Europe like Amorim and Ten Hag fall short.”

“He’s seen club legends who have got a lot of love for the club, who understand the values, understand how to play for Manchester United, understand what the fans want and can communicate that. He’s seen those guys fail.”

“He’s seen Ralf Rangnick come in, who’s got more of a sporting director background and a business background, come in and fail and tell the club they need open-heart surgery.”

“So he’s seen every type of manager fail at this football club over the last 13 years.”

“He’s got to come in and basically wipe the slate clean and start from scratch and imagine that this football club is a blank canvas because everybody that’s been there in that period has been part of the failure.”

Neville has consistently backed Pochettino as a candidate for the job and believes he has the qualities to succeed.

“I’ve always wanted Mauricio Pochettino as the manager at United. I’ve said it numerous times that I wanted him.”

“I think he’s a brilliant person. I think he’ll handle the media. I think he understands the size of the club.”

“But it’s a monumental task to win everybody else over and get everybody on side and make sure he has a team that can compete.”

“He’s a brilliant coach with great experience and he’s a good man.”

“He also believes in young players and bringing players through and developing them and coaching them, which is what he’s going to have to do at Manchester United.”

“I’ve always liked Mauricio Pochettino. Whether this is the right point for him to take the Manchester United job, who knows? We’ll find out in the next year or two.”

“But I’m hoping that he’s made some pretty strong demands on the way in and that he’s got control of the club.”

A Ten Player Rebuild and a Date at Anfield

Neville sees a huge rebuild ahead. Only Kobbie Mainoo convinces him in midfield, he wants a complete overhaul at the back and a new centre-forward, and he estimates Pochettino could need around 10 new players to get United back to where they want to be.

“If I said that the midfield that I’ve seen this season, only Kobbie Mainoo to me looks like he’s good enough,” said Neville.

“The back line, I think it needs a complete rebuild and I think we need a centre-forward.”

“So I don’t know how many that is and probably you could argue we need back-up in goal as well.”

“So my view would be probably, I don’t know yet, there’s probably five or six in defence, there’s two or three in midfield, there’s a goalkeeper and there’s probably a centre-forward.”

“And I think you’re probably looking at about 10 players that you would need to basically rotate out.”

“Lisandro Martinez told us that basically the sporting director should have brought more players in the summer, so the players know it themselves.”

“So Mauricio Pochettino, who’s been around the block and knows how to manage football clubs, he’ll have a pretty good idea, having watched Manchester United many times over many years.”

“He’ll know what he needs to do.”

United’s statement confirmed Carrick’s departure and praised his work last season.

“Manchester United can confirm that Michael Carrick has departed his role as men’s first-team head coach,” United said in a statement.

“Michael rejoined the club in January and guided the team to a third-placed Premier League finish by winning 12 out of the remaining 17 games of the 2025/26 season, accumulating the highest points tally in the league during that period.”

“After a disappointing start to the season, the club has come to the extremely difficult conclusion that a change is necessary in order to achieve our ambitions.”

“Michael is, and always will be, a Manchester United legend. Just as he did as a player, he has conducted himself with the highest standards of dedication and professionalism throughout his time back with the club. His leadership and achievements last season will always be fondly remembered.”

“The club intends to appoint a permanent successor as quickly as possible.”

Harry Maguire was the first United player to speak publicly. Alongside a photo of him shaking hands with Carrick, the defender posted on Instagram: “Will always be a legend. Respect. Thank you.”

United will have to pay the United States federation £7.4 million to release Pochettino from the contract extension he signed in August following the World Cup, and his coaching staff will require further payments. He is expected to take charge of United’s next match, against Liverpool at Anfield on 22 November.

Pochettino has not yet been confirmed as the new head coach. If he takes charge at Anfield, he will inherit a side in 18th place and a hierarchy that Neville has just accused of treating Carrick in a disgusting way. The former United right-back’s advice is to secure the budget, take control of recruitment and protect his own contract before anything else.