Michael Carrick is coming under immense pressure just months into his reign as Manchester United permanent head coach.

After guiding United to a third-placed finish last season, Carrick earned the job full-time after impressing INEOS during his caretaker stint. His side have since gone back to their old ways, putting in lackluster performances, suffering a shock opening defeat to Hull City and enduring a run of fives games without a win.

Football is a results business and high-profile names have inevitably already been linked with replacing Carrick. If the higher-ups decide to dismiss the club's legendary former midfielder, a potential appointment wouldn't go down well with one of his former teammates.

Antonio Conte Seems Keen on Man Utd Job

United took their time before offering the permanent job to Carrick and several candidates were explored. One of those wasn't Antonio Conte, who was still in charge at Napoli at the time.

Conte left the Naples outfit in June, a year after winning the Scudetto, and he remains on the lookout for a new club. He's hinted at his desire to return to management and bring the glory days back to one of Europe's top clubs.

Speaking earlier this month, the Italian tactician said there are many clubs who have "somewhat lost sight of their history." He wants to go to one of these clubs to "dust off that history and make it shine once more."

As soon as those comments surfaced, fans were immediately pointing towards Old Trafford as a destination for the former Chelsea boss. Gone are the days of dominating English football after Sir Alex Ferguson, who won 13 league titles and no manager has been able to deliver top-flight glory since his retirement in 2013.

Reports claim that Conte's representatives have informed United that he'd be open to replacing Carrick. If he were to arrive at the Theatre of Dreams, that might be something of a nightmare for the players, according to the club's former winger Ashley Young.

Ashley Young Warns Man Utd Against 'Boring' Conte

Young has first-hand experience working under Conte, having been part of his Inter Milan side that won the Serie A title in the 2020-21 campaign. The Englishman, who made 261 appearances as a Red Devil, voiced his concerns about the Italian being handed the reins because of his strict disciplinarian approach.

Speaking on The Overlap Daily, Young told Gary Neville: "A lot of talk has been about Man United’s running stats. If they’re not going to run and Antonio Conte goes in there, it’s going to be a disaster, I think."

While Conte achieved success at Chelsea, a spell at Tottenham Hotspur ended disappointingly. Young pointed this out, "He is throwing his name in the hat. Whether that is something that’s going to happen or not, I’m not sure whether the Man United players will be happy. I think you saw that when he went to Tottenham Hotspur."

United players have been accused of a lack of effort, particularly running and pressing. This is something Young thinks will be a huge focus for Conte if he replaces Carrick:

"Speaking to a lot of Tottenham players – and I had spoken to Chelsea players before I went to Inter Milan and was like, "So what’s he like?" And they were like, "You’re gonna run a lot, you’ll be fitter than you’ve ever been."

Not only did Young question Conte as a fit due to his running demands but also recalled constant meetings during his time at Inter: "The training sessions were a lot of 11 v 11, at times a little bit boring. Meetings were long. When I say long, I’m talking, if we lost the game, we could go in and do the meeting after the game and it’d stop literally everything."

Young added: "And you could be in there for three, four hours. I think that’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t last long at places, because not just the players – he tries to test mentally – but the board as well, and the owners, and I think that people get annoyed with him."

Conte is a serial winner and tends to make an instant impact at a new club as he did after becoming Napoli manager in July 2024. That very season his team became Serie A champions but as has been the case throughout his managerial career, problems arose behind-the-scenes leading to his departure in the summer.