Roy Keane believes that Manchester United should be targeting the likes of Diego Simeone and Luis Enrique as their next permanent manager, still insisting that he would not give the job to Michael Carrick.
United continue to impress under the leadership of interim boss Carrick, with Sunday’s 3-1 win over top-four rivals Aston Villa at Old Trafford marking his sixth consecutive home victory as his side strengthened their hold on third place in the Premier League table with only eight matches left to play this term.
The Red Devils have won seven of their nine games during Carrick’s tenure overall, totally transforming the mood around the club following the sacking of Ruben Amorim in January.
However, Keane remains steadfast in his belief that there are better candidates available for the full-time role in the summer, namechecking the likes of Atletico Madrid stalwart Simeone, Paris Saint-Germain head coach Enrique and even Thomas Tuchel, who recently extended his England contract through to Euro 2028.
“There's loads of options out there,” Keane said on Sky Sports after the win over Villa. “Are we all sitting here, ex-football people, saying there’s not better options than Michael Carrick?
“There’s loads of options out there, you go and get the best. Carrick’s not the best option for Man United. Simple.
“If they do give him the job, good luck to him. And if he does the business in the next few years and United are winning league titles, I’ll happily sit here and go ‘listen, I got it wrong’. No problem. But I believe there are better options out there.
“Simeone, Enrique. You go and try and find and get the best, there’s loads out there. Tuchel, you [Jamie Redknapp] have just mentioned. He’s just signed a new deal anyway with England, don’t get me wrong.
“You still have to go looking for the best option. It’s like when you’re looking for a midfielder as a club, you go and try to get the best midfielder. You don’t get one who has maybe come on loan for five or six games and go, ‘he’s the one’. That’s your responsibility.
“If they go out and try and suss these managers out and they all come back and they want £25-30million a year then I get it, but the responsibility of the board is surely to go and get the best that's available to Man United. That’s it.”
Asked if United would seriously consider giving Carrick the reins long-term if he guides them to a third-place finish this season, Keane had said: “I would have thought so, yeah.”
Quizzed if he would hand the role to Carrick himself, Keane replied: “No. I think there's better options out there.
“I think the games where he's come in and in terms of winning football matches, he's done a very good job. He's obviously simplified things but there's been no jeopardy in those games.
“They've had three weeks to prepare for the matches. It's been good timing for him to go in there and he's done a very good job. I take my hat off to him and if he does get the job in the summer I'll say, ‘listen, good luck to you’.
“But I think there are far better options out there for the next manager of Man United.
“If Carrick had been mentioned three months ago to be the next United manager, you'd have been locked up. We would've said he wasn’t even in the reckoning, but timing, he's got the opportunity and has done a very good job there.
“But I think there's better options out there, simple as that. But he's done a very good job. United are certain now to be in the Champions League of course, but United obviously making the decisions there, will have to go and interview people and see what's out there.
“Most players do like a caretaker manager. It's different when he comes in, then he’s got to make decisions about contracts, pre-season and medical staff, he’s involved in all that, transfers and recruitment.
“His job the last few months obviously has been to win football matches. I know that's a manager's job anyway, but he's not had any distractions even as a manager.
“Of course he's done it and I give him credit for that, but if he's given the job then there's different responsibilities for him.
“I think to manage Man United, I think you need someone a lot more experienced in terms of winning trophies, competing in Europe and he hasn't got that.
“He might have that in a few years, and he might be in the mix then, but the fact he's winning football matches at the moment of course gives him a great chance.
'”All this chat that everyone loves him, I don’t know if they were loving him last week when they couldn't beat Newcastle with 10 men. There’s a game you can look at and analyse and go, ‘well, what happened there?’
“He beat Aston Villa today - Aston Villa were shocking. Absolutely shocking. The more I look at Aston Villa, I’m thinking they'll be missing out on Europe, how bad they've been today.
“So the timing was good for United. For today's game, Villa are on the back of a European game and United, because they were so bad at the start of the season, they have got no distractions.
“Remember, this is the same group of players that finished 15th [last season]. So everyone else can get giddy about Man United being third in the league, I don't. I'm not one of them. I don't get all excited for stuff like that.
“I get excited when teams are winning trophies and competing week in, week out. So, I'm not one to get too giddy.”
