The Preview: Man United vs Man City
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to The Preview on The Athletic FC, where this week our main focus is the Manchester derby.
Michael Carrick will take charge of his first game back at Manchester United as interim manager while the Manchester City will look to get back to winning ways in the Premier League after three straight draws.
Carl Anka and Alex Barker join Matt Davies-Adams to look ahead to Saturday's clash before turning their attention to the fixtures elsewhere including Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal, Chelsea vs Brentford and Spurs vs West Ham.
Host: Matt Davies-Adams
With: Carl Anka & Alex Barker
Featuring: Sam Lee
Executive Producer: Adey Moorhead
Producer: Jay Beale
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC |
| 0:03.1 | Welcome to the preview from the Athletic FC. |
| 0:08.7 | It's the show where we get you set for the weekend's Premier League action. |
| 0:12.0 | This week we're looking ahead to the Manchester Derby. |
| 0:18.0 | And joining me today, we have Carl Anka. |
| 0:38.7 | How are you? I'm doing a while. Thanks. Thanks. How are you? Yeah, I can't complain. Thank you. Alex Barker's back with this too. You okay, Alex? I am doing good. Thank you very much. I'm good to be back. Superb. We are glad to have you here. All right then, we are going to get into some of the other big matchups of Match Week 22 as well. But first, let's get to our feature presentation. So Michael Carrick is back at Old Trafford as the latest interim manager, |
| 0:45.1 | replacing interim interim interim manager Darren Fletcher. Carick lasts at the wheel in 2021, |
| 0:50.5 | acting as caretaker, which is wildly different to being an interim. He replaced Oligona Solshar then, whilst the club looked for, you guessed it, an interim manager. |
| 0:59.0 | That was Ralph Rannick, but they weren't really interim. |
| 1:01.7 | Carl, what's been the reaction in Manchester to Carrick's appointment? |
| 1:06.5 | I'd say there is a section of the fan base that is tentatively excited about Carrick. Some are |
| 1:13.4 | disappointed that it's not Oligodosolcia as the new interim. While others are saying, this is all |
| 1:18.1 | just a big distraction. Glazer and the Ineos ownership group have to leave and we need to prime for |
| 1:23.2 | some form of protest. So I believe the fan group, the 1958, want to have a march onto Old |
| 1:29.4 | Trafford ahead of the Fulham game, which I thought was interesting in that they were going to skip |
| 1:34.4 | this home game, which to my mind you would get more eyeballs if you were to protest before the |
| 1:39.8 | Derby. However, you know, organizing people for a much take some time. So here we go. |
| 1:45.4 | So I expect the dub will have a unifying effect in that everyone wants to come together for a common foe. |
| 1:51.6 | But not all as well in the state of Mancunia. |
| 1:56.2 | Was he the best available option, Carrick? |
| 1:58.5 | I mean, there is a theory employed by other clubs that |
| 2:01.2 | involves not living relentlessly in the past. It's a bold strategy. I'm not sure I want to do that. |
... |
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