MANCHESTER UNITED appointed a Portuguese firebrand and a former player before sounding out Mauricio Pochettino. But enough about Ed Woodward.

The club that goes round in circles has come full circle again. Sir Jim Ratcliffe “wouldn’t have tolerated” Woodward yet he is tolerating men who are mimicking the former United executive vice-chairman.

Woodward never handled sackings suitably yet his approach was the managerial equivalent of palliative care compared with the Ineos cabal.

A chief executive and director of football swanning off to Monaco to present a succession plan to a nom-dom co-owner while the dead man walking walks around Carrington is a new nadir.

Do not expect a valid explanation from the distant Omar Berrada or silent Jason Wilcox.

Their lack of communication is tantamount to contempt for supporters who have been subjected to ticket price hikes, seat relocations to make way for hospitality seats, an insensitive ticket-touting clampdown and the team’s descent into the relegation zone.

Ratcliffe last year claimed that his team are “local” and the Glazers are the “other side of the pond”. Ratcliffe is on the other side of the Channel at a critical time.

The Monaco summit was pre-planned but could have been cancelled.

Instead Berrada and Wilcox leave themselves open to ridicule. Expect them to be mocked up as Michael Caine and Steve Martin in the French Riviera-set Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

One of that classic comedy’s taglines was “Nice guys finish last. Meet the winners.” There are no winners in the way United have gone about jettisoning Michael Carrick.

Carrick is well remunerated and he will be due a tidy pay-off. He has thick enough skin to withstand the drama.

On a human level, the treatment of him is tawdry and unedifying. Carrick drove out of Carrington on Tuesday with his son, Jacey, in the passenger seat.

Carrick’s wife, Lisa, had also been at Carrington to drop her son off. All three know what is coming yet they are continuing with their routines with dignity.

Carrick is a victim of his own compliance. If he had questioned Wilcox as vehemently as Ruben Amorim had, he would have been sacked in the morning, as Amorim was.

Successive regimes at United have had a tendency to throw protective blankets over the decision-makers whilst the manager is thrown to the wolves.

With Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on the brink, someone senior at United was more vexed by criticism of incoming chief executive Richard Arnold than the Norwegian.

Some staff close to the first team were fiercely protective of Erik ten Hag as alliances were forged amid uncertainty of what was to come from Ineos. Normality resumed when Ten Hag was gone.

Wilcox received staunch backing amid the fallout from Amorim’s dismissal.

As far as United were concerned, Amorim was the fall guy.

Wilcox needs to either film a three-minute video without blinking, a la Ferran Soriano, or flank Mauricio Pochettino at his maiden press conference.

There are more burning unanswered questions for Wilcox than Pochettino.

Staff at Carrington revealed that Wilcox likened himself to the “manager”.

Managers speak to the press. Wilcox cannot hide in the protective barrier of the directors’ box for the next six months.

Figures at the club have also been sensitive to criticism of Berrada in recent months. Berrada has spoken on-the-record to journalists on two separate occasions – in September 2024 and March 2025 – but has since favoured a handful of softer chats.

Carrick is bound to be phlegmatic whilst he remains on the payroll. He was one of the players who was summoned to Carrington by Woodward before David Moyes was officially sacked in April 2014.

Moyes had to wait until the following morning to have the news communicated to him. Journalists had broken the story the previous day yet Moyes found Woodward to be unreachable.

Carrick was on the coaching staff when Jose Mourinho was granted a day off only to be informed of his dismissal on his return the next morning.

United had made their decision 36 hours earlier but lied to this correspondent when he had got wind of it.

Mourinho and Amorim, the two Portuguese firebrands, are in the top four of their leagues with Real Madrid and AC Milan.