Carrick Confirms No Man Utd Exits as Transfer Window Closes
Manchester United plan to be active in the last days of the summer window, but Michael Carrick is drawing a firm line on one front: he does not expect anyone to leave.
With 10 days left for Premier League clubs to do business, United are lining up a third midfield arrival and want cover at left-back. Outgoings, though, have barely flickered.
The picture could easily have been different. Manuel Ugarte looked set to move on before a serious knee injury at the World Cup halted everything. Barcelona then chose not to activate their £26million option on Marcus Rashford, while United failed to find a buyer for Andre Onana and instead accepted another season-long loan.
Joshua Zirkzee is the one name that refuses to go away. Italian clubs have been circling and the Dutch forward pushed for a move in January in search of regular starts. United blocked that exit and he ended up missing out on the Netherlands’ World Cup squad. With the clock ticking on the window, his situation still has the potential to ignite late drama.
Carrick, though, insists no one has come knocking on his door.
“Not to me, no,” he said when asked if any player had told him they wanted to leave. Pressed on whether he expected the squad to remain intact until at least January, he replied: “Yeah, at least. I don't know what's going to come out, you know. I don't know what's going to come at us from elsewhere.
“We can control what we can control. I'm really happy with the squad we've got so far, and if not, we want to improve it.”
Three signings are already through the door: goalkeeper Karl Darlow, midfielder Andrey Santos and playmaker Youri Tielemans. Carrick has cut a calm figure throughout pre-season, even while acknowledging the club still have work to do.
Earlier this month he stressed United must “keep pushing” in the market, but he refused to follow the path of some of his predecessors by airing frustrations in public.
Jose Mourinho famously declared he was “not happy” with United’s transfer business during their 2018 tour of the United States, a summer that saw his relationship with then-executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward deteriorate in full view. Carrick watched that saga from the inside, having just joined Mourinho’s staff.
Asked if that turbulent tour had shaped his approach, Carrick pointed instead to the planning behind this year’s preparations.
“I've been really happy with the structure [of pre-season],” he said. “It would have been nice to have more players back early, but at the same time, it was nice to see some of the boys go far in the World Cup as well.
“But yeah, certainly as a structure and as a flow and how the boys have come back, how they've trained, what the group looks like. I think we can be happy with a lot of that.
“We all know pre-season is one thing, and once the start of the season gets going, it's a whole different story. So I think it just gives you the chance for the foundation to be able to move, and we've got to take big steps as the season goes on to move forward.”
United’s hierarchy now scramble to add the final pieces around him. Carrick, for his part, expects the same faces in the dressing room when the window slams shut – and then the real judgement begins.
