Antonio Conte Linked with Manchester United Job Amid Carrick's Struggles
Antonio Conte is back in the Manchester United conversation. In Italy, they are talking as if the decision is already made.
The former Juventus, Chelsea, Inter and Napoli coach is being heavily linked with Old Trafford again, with reports claiming the six-time league winner has already made up his mind on a potential move should United call. At 57 and currently out of work after leaving Napoli at the end of last season, Conte is, as one Italian report put it, “waiting by the phone”.
Carrick’s early promise under scrutiny
This is not the scenario United imagined when they handed Michael Carrick the job on a permanent basis.
Carrick stepped in after Ruben Amorim was sacked and immediately steadied a listing ship. He took an underperforming side, dragged it into the Champions League places and secured a comfortable third-place finish in the Premier League. The mood changed. The football improved. The dressing room seemed to respond.
INEOS, newly embedded as co-owners, saw enough. They backed Carrick with an initial two-year deal, convinced that a club legend with a clear idea of how he wanted to play could lead the next phase of the rebuild. They did their homework on other candidates, but the internal momentum was firmly behind the 44-year-old.
Now, just a few months into that reign, the questions have started.
One former United player has already publicly wondered whether Carrick would even make it to the January transfer window given the team’s stuttering start. Four points from four Premier League games, capped by a grim 1-0 home defeat to 10-man Manchester City, has reopened the old wounds and reignited the old doubts.
And in Italy, those doubts have been seized upon.
Conte waits, Juventus watch
On Tuesday, reports emerged that United’s hierarchy were at least considering Conte as a possible successor if things unravel under Carrick. Il Corriere dello Sport has since gone further, talking up the idea of Conte to Old Trafford as a move gathering momentum.
Conte, they say, is ready. Eager to jump back in. But only for the right job.
He has already turned down the chance to return as Italy’s national team coach and has rejected an approach from Fenerbahce. The message is clear: he wants a project at the very top level, with the resources and stage to match his own ferocious demands.
Old Trafford fits that description. It is not the first time his name has been tied to the United job, and the attraction is obvious on both sides. Conte brings structure, intensity, and a track record of instant impact. Across 703 games in management, he has a win percentage of 58.04%. Those numbers speak loudly inside any boardroom.
But United would not have a free run at him. Juventus are also weighing up a move to bring him back to the Allianz Stadium. The club where he won titles as both player and coach could yet complicate any Premier League pursuit.
United’s stance on Carrick
For all the noise from Italy, the message from Manchester is very different.
Inside Old Trafford, there are no active plans to sack Carrick. Not now, not this early into his tenure. The club expected turbulence after a summer of significant change in midfield and accept that integrating new signings into a new structure takes time.
Transfer frustrations have also played their part. United pushed to sign a left-back in the summer but, as Fabrizio Romano explained, refused to move for the sake of it.
“Manchester United absolutely know that maybe the point about the summer transfer window was to add one more player, a left-back. They tried. It was not possible to proceed with the right options,” Romano said on his YouTube channel.
“United didn’t want to sign just to say: ‘OK, we signed one.’ They wanted to be convinced about the player they were going to sign, and so that’s why nothing happened.”
The club’s faith in Carrick, Romano insists, remains intact.
“They only have four points in four Premier League games, so obviously this is disappointing in terms of results, but Man Utd remain convinced about that.
“Carrick remains absolutely convinced too. What Carrick says in public – ‘We are going to do very well, I am confident, this team is good’ and all the rest – is what he’s saying to the club.
“Carrick remains absolutely convinced that this team can do very well in the next weeks and months, especially after the break. So that’s the feeling of Michael Carrick.”
A familiar tension at Old Trafford
So United stand publicly by their man while a proven serial winner hovers in the background. It is a familiar tension at a club that has lurched between long-term projects and short-term fixes for a decade.
Conte would bring edge, discipline and an immediate jolt of authority. Carrick offers continuity, calm and the possibility of building something more sustainable if he rides out the early storm.
The phone, for now, has not rung. But if the results do not turn quickly, how long can United resist the pull of a coach with Conte’s record and reputation?
