Michael Carrick was in the enviable position of being linked with three new jobs in the space of a week.
That’s what happens when you are a young manager who’s taken a Championship club, Boro, from third bottom to third top in five months. Football takes notice when you’ve won 16 of your first 23 games, with automatic promotion to the Premier League within reach.
Spurs, West Ham, and Crystal Palace - who went with stop-gap Roy Hodgson before a summer switch - were the clubs cited with having an eye on Carrick. More will be added to the list in the coming month if Carrick’s reputation soars, even if Boro end up in the play-offs, or having another crack at promotion next season. For now, Carrick is in the right place.
But in the future he should be looking to Manchester United as his next destination. Or newly rich Newcastle United, his hometown club.
There are perils in automatically seeing multi-medalled playing heroes as shoe-ins to return as head coach. Look at Steven Gerrard, who flew high winning a title with Rangers, was supposedly next in line for Liverpool, before finding life at Aston Villa problematic.
Carrick, 41, is demonstrating all the attributes to suggest he will have a strong shot to succeed, after what could be a few years waiting, Erik ten Hag or Eddie Howe. He has modernised Boro. They are a hard pressing, slick unit, on the front foot, and players have improved.
Carrick had a 500-plus game playing career learning from the best Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal, and Jose Mourinho. As a rookie coach, Mourinho brought him onto the Old Trafford staff, Ole Gunnar Solskjear gave him a bigger role, and he won his two games as caretaker.
Carrick is level-headed, seems unflappable and plays down expectations around his hard-working Boro side, yet he’s working a miracle on Teesside. One day he’ll have the pick of the two big United’s.
