It is only eight months since Bruno Fernandes was reflecting on the impact Michael Carrick had made and how he predicted it. Back in 2021, when Carrick’s first spell in charge of Manchester United ended, Fernandes spoke to him. “I think he still remembers what I told him the last time he was our manager,” he said. “I was sure Michael could be a great manager and now he’s showing it.”

Then again, it is only six weeks since Carrick was thinking back to United’s 2008 Champions League win and allowing himself to dream. “The best feeling I've had,” he said. “Be nice someday to feel that again.” It scarcely seems an overreaction to suggest he probably will not; or not at the helm of United anyway.

Carrick was part of some of United’s greatest European nights even if, in his understated way, it was rarely all about him. He was in charge for one of the worst, Wednesday’s 4-1 walloping at Como, again insisting it was not about him.

By the end, it was, though. Fernandes’ post-match interview ensured as much. And if the tactical point the captain raised about United’s lack of pressing was relevant – they have looked slow and sluggish for much of the campaign, but perhaps they have too many old and slow players to press – the dissent was still the more notable element of his comments.

In his golden spring, Carrick had his players’ backing. He was the amiable antidote to Ruben Amorim, the United whisperer, the decorated great who seemed more suited to the Old Trafford dugout than the Middlesbrough technical area.

Now no one is happy with anyone else. Fernandes has questioned the gameplan and thus the manager, Lisandro Martinez the recruitment and the sporting director Jason Wilcox. Erik ten Hag’s recent observation that the players have too much power rings true; or that, with the odd notable exception – and Fernandes is one – they seem to accept too little responsibility. In Como, Carrick cast aside his usual talk of “the boys” giving everything to admit he was angry and call the performance “not acceptable”.

A lot of them have been. There have been at least four truly diabolical displays this season – Hull, Manchester City, Brighton and Como – with others of varying degrees of mediocre. Low-key as Carrick can be, he sounded too upbeat after Sunday’s draw at Leeds. He called that a fresh start. Instead, he looks nearer the end. He said training ahead of the trip to Elland Road was one of the best sessions they have ever had. A man who has dealt in forgettable rhetoric now finds his comments are memorable for the wrong reasons.

It prompts the question of how long he can last. The usual answer with United managers is longer than they should; in Amorim’s case, at least seven months longer, in Ten Hag’s four, in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho’s several weeks. United’s powerbrokers tend to ignore the signs, hoping against hope a corner will be turned, perhaps conscious sacking a manager is an indictment of their decision-making in appointing him.

The distinctly underwhelming double act of chief executive Omar Berrada and Wilcox scarcely showed much confidence in Carrick when they only gave him a two-year contract. Perhaps the thought was that he could consolidate before someone else would take them forwards. Instead, for the fourth year in a row, United are regressing alarmingly in autumn.

Sometimes with United the surprise is how fast it unravels, not the fact it does. It was evident this year would pose greater challenges for Carrick, with the complications of a more crowded fixture list. That was compounded by failures in the transfer market, whether of a failure to recruit in certain positions or a failure in who they did add in midfield.

Yet it is still startling how bad they have been and how, unlike previous poor United sides, they have struggled to churn out even the odd unconvincing win. They have not won in seven and their next seven fixtures – Bournemouth, Chelsea, Roma, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Sporting CP and Brentford – suggest any respite could be temporary before the next setback.

Carrick could seem to have entered the endgame, the long goodbye. The calmness that seemed a strength now looks a shortcoming if he lacks the dynamism to turn this around. The damning reality for a man who made an instant impact is that United have looked worse the longer he has been in charge.

His planning can come unstuck quickly. United didn’t feel ready for the start of the season. They haven’t begun in a manner to suggest they were ready for their first two Champions League away games, conceding in the first minute to Atletico Madrid and the second to Como. The Italian city is, famously, home to the Clooneys. United were the team who didn’t have a clue.

And if the problems go from the dressing room to the boardroom, Carrick, who has looked powerless to halt their slide this season, may not join the small band of their great managers but the increasingly large group of their ex-managers.