The issues at United are deep-rooted and the club is essentially rotten from the top down. From the boardroom, to the manager, to the players who aren't good enough, to the ex-pros running their mouths in the media every few days.

Sacking the head coach only addresses one of those areas, and if Carrick is eventually axed, who would United even get in?

For starters, no decent manager with their head screwed on would touch United with a barge pole.

The job is a poisoned chalice. It chews up and spits out anybody who is foolish enough to think they can be the one to buck that inevitable trend.

Secondly, the options to replace Carrick aren't particularly tempting. Even if Hurzeler wanted to join, he's not proven at the very highest level and has never worked under the pressure that comes with managing United, which is on a completely different scale.

Antonio Conte is a loose cannon and if United are going to ditch Carrick, the volatile Italian is exactly the sort of manager they should avoid.

Eddie Howe struggled at Newcastle last season and resigned over the summer when he felt the board weren't supporting him in the transfer market.

If he can't cope with that, how exactly is he supposed to deal with those same issues, but worse, at United?

Mauricio Pochettino would be a popular appointment with supporters, but we all know deep down that it would end in tears, as it always does.

Their only option, therefore, might simply be to keep their current boss and tread water until the penny finally drops.

They might get the brief joy of a new manager bounce if they replace him, but in the long run, pulling the trigger won't change a thing.

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