According to reports, Manchester United have set a ‘deadline’ for Michael Carrick’s future, while the ‘preferred’ target to replace him has emerged.

Carrick is on the thinnest of ice at Man Utd because the Premier League giants have endured a dire start to the 2026/27 campaign.

After finishing third in the Premier League last season to qualify for the Champions League, Man Utd have reverted to type after a disappointing summer of recruitment and are currently without a win in nine matches in all competitions.

Overall, the Red Devils have only won two of their 13 matches this season, and they sit 17th in the Premier League table.

Carrick is the overwhelming favourite to be the first Premier League manager sacked, and he potentially has two home games against AS Roma and Aston Villa before the international break to save himself.

Manchester United turn to ‘preferred candidate’ to replace Michael Carrick

A new report from The Guardian claims Carrick will ‘stay in charge’ for the Roma game at least, but they have ‘made contact’ with former Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe.

The report explains:

‘Eddie Howe is Wilcox’s preferred candidate should Carrick be sacked, with contact between the parties understood to have been made. The former Newcastle ­manager is open to taking up the position, ­subject to negotiations. He would cost around £3m in compensation to Newcastle.

‘Julian Nagelsmann, the ­former Germany and Bayern Munich head coach, is highly regarded by ­Christopher ­Vivell, United’s director of ­recruitment, who is believed to have sounded out his fellow ­German. The pair previously worked together at RB Leipzig.’

And journalist Henry Winter has told talkSPORT that Carrick has a ‘deadline’ to save his job before the upcoming international break.

“You go into the Roma game. You prepare for that,” Winter told talkSPORT when asked what Carrick must do to respond after the Chelsea match.

“The irony of that is that it was probably one of his best ever performances as a Manchester United player [in the 7-1].

“He scored twice, and he was fantastic…And then he limps on into the Aston Villa game and probably loses his job in the international break.

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“We know what international breaks are like in the rhythm of managers; if they’re going through a difficult time, it gives the club opportunity and time to get someone in.

“And also you have the risk of if an incumbent manager is staying on during the international break, and there are dark clouds over his head – those players who go off on international break.

“You know what we’re like [the media]. I would imagine the Portuguese journalists before they got Denmark and Wales and the Argentinian journalists before the Uruguayans and Costa Rica.

“They will be talking respectively to Bruno Fernandes, and to Lisandro Martinez, and say, ‘What do you think of this Carrick character?’

“And of course, the sort of headlines emanating from those international camps, and other ones, are just a bit too much.

“So you’d imagine that at some point the club will make a decision on Michael Carrick, and then the whole circus will just continue with another manager until you sort out the ownership.”