Manchester United are heading for the Championship with Michael Carrick in charge, and the under-fire manager has revealed whether or not he’ll now resign for the sake of safeguarding the club’s Premier League status.

Man Utd have won just once in the Premier League in 10 attempts this season. Across all competitions, they’ve conceded the most goals (30) of any side in Europe’s top five leagues.

Heading into the international break, Man Utd sit 18th and inside the relegation zone. Dropping a division is a very real prospect if United stand by Carrick for the full campaign.

The 45-year-old is a man who has the Red Devils at heart. Aside from starring for the club for well over a decade, he’s also served as one of Jose Mourinho’s assistants during the Portuguese’s reign, as well as caretaker manager in two separate spells.

As such, one school of thought suggests Carrick might choose the international break as the opportune time to tender his resignation and walk away for the greater good of the club.

Handing the baton to a more capable and qualified manager would almost inevitably bring an uptick in results and resign talk of relegation to the scrapheap.

But during a tetchy interview with Sky Sports’ Patrick Davison after the 4-4 draw with Aston Villa, Carrick insisted he has no plans to resign.

Michael Carrick refuses to resign from Man Utd

As such, it’s now a case of if Man Utd want to make a change, they’ll have to pay him off. The Athletic previously cited the cost of changing managers as one of the reasons why Carrick hasn’t yet been sacked.

Carrick was asked: “What do you expect to happen over the next few weeks? If you thought walking away was the best thing, you’d probably do it.”

The United boss replied: “It’s not going to happen, no.”

The pair then engaged in a tense back-and-forth, with Davison beginning: “What do you expect to happen? Clearly there’s going to be conversation?

Carrick: “Is there?”

Davison: “You would assume so, right?

Carrick: “Would you?”

Davison: “What do you think, Michael?”

Carrick: “You’re telling me what you think, aren’t you?”

Davison: “I’m asking you what you think? What do you expect to happen?”

Carrick: “We understand the situation; we haven’t won enough games. But I expect to move forward and keep working on things we’ve been working on, showing a lot of the good in the game today, tighten up on a few mistakes and win football matches.”

A subsequent update from Fabrizio Romano when reporting on his YouTube channel overnight revealed Man Utd are not expected to sack Carrick over the international break.

As such, and for now at least, the club are prepared to run the relegation gauntlet with Carrick at the wheel.