Manchester United have been told the key condition they would have to satisfy if they want to convince Eddie Howe to take the job currently occupied by Michael Carrick.

Carrick is in a spot of bother after a rotten start to his first season as the full-time boss. The former midfielder was appointed full-time after guiding United to a top three finish last season, but this season he has overseen a run of just one win in seven Premier League games and one win from three Champions League games.

To make matters worse, United were battered by Como in the Champions League during the week, and Bruno Fernandes came out and criticised the tactics laid out by Carrick and his staff, following Lisandro Martinez in going public with criticism, albeit the Martinez criticism was aimed at the club chiefs and not Carrick.

After a positive end to last season, it was hoped United were on the up, but they have slipped back into being a club with a toxic atmosphere, as they have been too often in recent years.

Carrick is under real pressure at this point, despite the board certainly holding its own portion of the blame due to inefficient recruitment during the summer. Carrick is being backed now, perhaps partly due to that factor, but there is only so long these sorts of results can continue.

The problem is, given the issues above Carrick, who do United turn to in a bid to turn things around? Managers like Antonio Conte may shy away from the role if there are problems at club level. Another option is former Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe, who now has experience of managing a successful club with a pretty big budget, but United would have to offer something they may not be willing to give up.

Howe would want 'control' at United

According to Alan Shearer, who knows Howe well, the former Magpies boss would want 'control of things' at Old Trafford, which would mean him having a traditional manager role rather than being a head coach who answers to director of football Jason Wilcox.

“I guess you don’t have to be on the inside to think and know what’s going on at Manchester United,” Shearer told Betfair.

“When you go through Rangnick and Eric Ten Hag, Rúben Amorim, then you talk about the Dan Ashworth situation, you had Dave Brailsford and the compensation they paid Newcastle, then sacked him, their recruitment, arguing with ticket prices. There’s so much going on there in terms of how it highlights the huge problems they’ve got.

"I'm totally confident we'll get it back. Respect this football club, respect what it takes, because it's very, very important to me." - Michael Carrick

“It’s there for everyone to see. Everyone’s looking at it. It’s being played out in the open. You don’t need an Eric Ten Hag interview to know that there are huge problems at Manchester United. Is Antonio Conte the answer? I don’t know. My only thing would be this: it’s not the coach’s fault. There are huge issues at the football club. I don’t know how desperate he is for a job.

“I guess looking at who’s been in and how many managers and coaches they’ve hired and fired, I just wonder whether other managers would look at that and think, well, I know how huge you are, but maybe that’s not the right job at the right time.

“Eddie Howe has also been linked, he wants control of things, and in a club that he sees that is his role and his issue. Whether he would get that at Manchester United or not, I don’t know.”

United would be wise to turn the keys over to an experienced manager like Howe. They have to move away from this hopeless model of executives with no experience of being a player or manager running football operations. And while Wilcox is an exception to that as a former player, he is already proving himself ineffective at this level, pointing to the need to give the keys to someone with more experience in the modern game.

The Red Devils are overcomplicating things by operating like a corporate business. Football may be that on some levels, but when it comes to signing players and managing football situations, there is no substitute for those who have either done it as a professional or dedicated their lives to working as a coach.

The corporate structure can work, and others clubs, particularly abroad, have managed it, but it is not working for United, and it hasn't for too long. In their best years, they trusted Alex Ferguson to run almost everything at the club. They need to find a manager they can offer that level of trust to, whether that's Howe or someone else.