Matt is an experienced sports journalist and Senior Editor at Football FanCast with 15 years of experience covering football across the Premier League, EFL and Scottish football. Since joining the publication in 2019, he has progressed from writer to Assistant Editor and Senior Editor, a position he has held since 2021.  

A Sports Journalism graduate, Matt previously served as Arsenal and Premier League Editor at VAVEL and gained club-media experience with Chesterfield FC. His journalism has appeared through the Press Association, with his work featured by Sky Sports and the Daily Mail.
 

Throughout his career, Matt has interviewed prominent football figures including Arsène Wenger, Ray Parlour, Alan Smith, Lucy Bronze and Steph Houghton, while also appearing on Arsenal Fan TV and Love Sport Radio.
 

Today, Matt leads Football FanCast's features team, overseeing opinion coverage, editorial standards and content strategy while continuing to provide detailed football analysis.

As Patrick Dorgu's late equaliser rippled the net on Sunday, Manchester United manager Michael Carrick could not even raise a wry smile.

He stood emotionless but waved a solitary finger in the air. Perhaps the former midfielder already knew his race was run. He certainly looked like a defeated man as he watched his side draw 4-4.

On another day, that point would have been celebrated. Drawing with Villa, who are no mugs under Unai Emery, is a decent result.

Alas, Carrick needed a win, he needed to inject some positivity into Old Trafford. Sadly, he looks out for the count.

The latest on Michael Carrick's Man Utd future

For weeks now the writing has been on the wall for Carrick. They have not won a Premier League game since tearing Ipswich Town apart back in August.

Since then, they have gone 11 domestic matches without winning. They have picked up victories against Sabah and Roma in the Champions League but that doesn't appear to be enough to keep the 45-year-old in his post.

Indeed, according to a variety of reports late on Monday night, the manager is set to receive his marching orders in the forthcoming days with key United officials due to meet in Monaco.

That meeting will be about Carrick's future and who could replace him. Those at the top of the club are in agreement that time has now run out for the former Middlesbrough boss and quite right too.

While he was failed in the recruitment department by Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox over the summer, he has not been able to get a tune out of his players.

It's a bizarre set of circumstances. Indeed, from gameweek 20 of the 2025/26 season to gameweek 38, no team picked up more points in the Premier League than Man United. It was title-winning form.

It's all unravelled remarkably. They now sit in the relegation zone heading into the November international break.

Who's in the frame to replace Carrick at Man Utd?

Fortunately for United, the job market looks really rather vibrant right now with the likes of Julian Nagelsmann and Antonio Conte both out of work and looking for a new role.

Conte would be a swashbuckling addition. He's a winner, a serial one at that, and he's already thrived in English football, lifting the Premier League with Chelsea.

However, there's also a lot of baggage. Given the toxicity that already surrounds United, do the Red Devils really want someone who never knows when to back down? Do they really want someone who will willingly call out the hierarchy in press conferences? We've already seen enough of that for one season.

Emery is allegedly the dream appointment and despite his terrible spell at Arsenal, it's a hire that would make sense.

He has established something beautiful at Aston Villa and he could be just the man, with his prinicples and tactics, to take United back to where they belong.

Yet, his story in the Midlands is not done yet. All signs point towards the Spaniard signing a new contract at Villa Park. Fair enough, right? He has that club in the palm of his hands. Why on earth would he want to walk into the mess that is Man United?

4-2-3-1 manager should be Fernandes' dream appointment

While every football club is bigger than just the players who wear the jersey, United do need to consider who would be best to take on this group of players.

Ruben Amorim drowned under the pressure and scrutiny of the job and while Carrick didn't exactly falter in the same fashion, he is clearly not equipped to deal with some of the biggest egos in the game.

That much was clear when it came to skipper Bruno Fernandes. The Portuguese ended last term with 21 Premier League assists to his name, a new seasonal record and went on to win the PFA Player of the Year award.

However, as the going has got tough, Fernandes has looked like a different man and for all of the wrong reasons.

After that hideous defeat to Como in the Champions League, the captain questioned the manager's tactics: "It's a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man and sometimes leave space behind and try to get the ball," he said.

Fernandes continued: "That's on the manager and staff to see it [if the tactics are wrong], not me."

The repercussions of that were huge. Carrick dropped the 32-year-old but it is Bruno, as usual, who is set to have the final laugh. United's dream managerial appointment, therefore, could be just the thing to revive his career.

According to talkSPORT, Mauricio Pochettino is now the leading contender to become the new United boss. They suggest that 'Pochettino has always been keen on the United post' and that while his contract with the USA does contain a release clause, that is not set to be prohibitive.

Previously celebrated as "one of the best managers in the world" by Pep Guardiola, Poch is one of the most highly regarded managers around and could be just the person to revive this sleeping giant and return Fernandes to his status as the best player in the Premier League.

Why? Well, the Argentine simply ticks so many boxes. Hailed as a a "genius" by Sky Sports' Joe Thomlinson, he is yet to win a trophy in England but he is proven on these shores having first established himself as a progressive and modern coach at Southampton. He then astonishingly guided Tottenham Hotspur to a Champions League final. No boss has come close to matching what he achieved at Spurs.

But, there's more to it than that. Pochettino knows how to manage egos, he knows how to manage a character like Fernandes.

While he was eventually given his marching orders by PSG, the 54-year-old did win Ligue 1 in 2021/22 with a squad that contained Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Sergio Ramos. If you can handle the noise and pressure that comes with managing the French giants, you can handle Manchester United.

If you can handle Donald Trump's expectations, as he did so at the World Cup this summer, he can manage Man United and he can look after Fernandes.

For years now, the Portugal international has been craving an elite appointment. Now 32 years of age, the midfielder is running out of years to win the best trophies around. Pochettino, who will get United playing in a 4-2-3-1 formation, is somebody who could well help him see out his final years in England with a bang.