Who are the frontrunners for Man United job?
Talk of the Devils: The Athletic FC's Manchester United show
The Athletic
4.6 • 771 Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's January 2026 and, with things looking up for Manchester United under Michael Carrick, it's time for our first Q&A of the year. Frankly, there's only one question you want an answer to... what will it take for Carrick to get the job full time and, if he doesn't, who are the main candidates?
There's a brighter outlook for several players, too. We consider the prospect of Kobbie Mainoo making it to the World Cup (Finals) and think about who might start at Fulham; a different sort of test for the new, well balanced, coaching setup.
And, of course, we've an assortment of some of your more outlandish ideas and suggestions before checking in on our wild take amnesty from the start of the season.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC |
| 0:04.0 | Hello and welcome to Talk the Devils Extra. |
| 0:24.4 | It's our first Q&A of 2026 and it's fair to say the questions are looking far more positive than our final Q&A of 2025. |
| 0:33.3 | I think we can say that again. |
| 0:34.7 | There's a much happier tone everywhere where Manchester United are concerned at the moment. We've got Critch here in the studio with us. Hello, Critch. We've got Andy at home and we've got Carl in London. Thank you for everyone who's got in touch. We've got tons to get through. So let's get straight into it. The first question is from Tom and about 500 other people who had exactly the same sentiment, to be fair. |
| 0:55.4 | He said, this might sound premature. You know what's coming, don't you? But in my opinion, |
| 0:59.6 | Michael Carrick has already shown a level of tactical flexibility and awareness that Ruben |
| 1:03.9 | Amory never seemed to, and Erickson Haag really did. The magnitude of the results and the exceptional |
| 1:09.3 | level of both performances |
| 1:10.9 | should surely mean that Michael Carrick is the front runner for the permanent job. |
| 1:16.5 | Andy, what do you think? |
| 1:17.5 | Yes, he has shown tactical adaptability. |
| 1:21.3 | Yes, he's got very good coaches around him. |
| 1:24.8 | Let's just end it there. |
| 1:26.0 | Should he then become the front runner, just wait a little bit. Let's just end it there. Should he then become the frontrunner? Just wait a little bit. |
| 1:30.5 | He's been at the club for a matter of days. He's had a brilliant, brilliant start. But I don't think |
| 1:37.8 | that any decision needs to be made now. The way Manchester United is structured now is that |
| 1:43.4 | players are brought for the club, not for a manager. |
| 1:46.8 | Clearly there's some compromise there. |
| 1:48.2 | I know players are brought in who a manager stroke coach doesn't want. |
| 1:52.8 | And players like Patrick Dog who are brought in for a system, but also keeping in mind that it could play in other systems, it's not something that Manchester |
| 2:02.4 | United need to rush into. On the contrary, if United do take a step back and see how things go |
... |
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