Roy Keane was lined up for a dramatic return to Manchester United before Michael Carrick was handed the interim reins last season.

Carrick led the Red Devils back into the Champions League with 12 wins from 17 Premier League games after taking interim charge in mid-January, but is now facing the sack himself having been handed the permanent job in the summer.

The former midfielder is set for a ‘stay of execution’ after just two wins in 12 across all competitions as Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS fail to agree on a successor.

Carrick will take charge of the trip to Chelsea on Saturday, and may remain at the helm for the clashes with Roma and Aston Villa ahead of the international break, which will grant any new manager an opportunity to get their feet under the table.

A club legend falling on hard times after a positive start is all very familiar to Man Utd fans, who watched the very same thing happen to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Solskjaer endured a very brief spell in charge of Besiktas following his Red Devils sacking and is now working as a match analyst on the UEFA executive committee, but was in the running for a second interim spell at Old Trafford after Ruben Amorim’s dismissal.

Carrick got the job, but according to The Sun, Solskjaer’s appointment could have seen Keane make a sensational return to Man Utd as he was ‘the Norwegian’s potential choice for his No2’.

Keane won seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the Champions League in a 12-year spell at United, largely as captain, and has never returned in an official capacity since an acrimonious exit in November 2005.

Keane managed Sunderland and Ipswich but also worked as Martin O’Neill assistant at Ireland and Nottingham Forest and under Paul Lambert at Aston Villa.

There have been suggestions in some quarters that Keane should be handed the top job at Old Trafford. Djibril Cisse, who played under Keane at Sunderland, feels he’d be a good hire for the Red Devils.

He said: “Roy Keane has the weight of experience and history. He is a strong personality, and he’s an icon of the club.

“He wore the armband for so many years during United’s glory days, so bringing him back would be a really good thing.

“I really enjoyed working with him because he didn’t judge me on what he’d heard or what people might say about my character. He trusted me, it worked very well, and I was very disappointed when he left. He’s a coach I loved working with and whom I respect enormously.

“We’re quite similar. We’re honest, we say things straight, and once it’s said, we move on. We’re all in. When I do something, I do it properly. When I say something, I mean it. He’s like that too, and I really, really enjoyed my time with him.”