It couldn’t happen, could it? The answer to that is probably not but the fact that, after Sunday’s 4-4 draw with Aston Villa, Manchester United being relegated to the Championship is a prospect that can be discussed as anything other than rival fan fiction ought to terrify the Glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
A 4-4 draw with Aston Villa exposes a crisis that can no longer be ignored.
A quarter of the season is gone. The table may not be telling us the whole story but it can no longer be dismissed like it can in August or September. You’ll struggle to find many teams who can sincerely argue they’ve been mistreated by the fixture list and United are certainly not one of them. They are where they are, 18th, a point behind Coventry City and safety, and there is not much to explain that away.
That is why Michael Carrick had to go. On Wednesday morning, the 45-year-old was still taking training at the club’s Carrington base but he is expected to be relieved of his duties once the United hierarchy have met in Monaco. There, the club’s chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox are expected to tell minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe that it is time to part ways with Carrick. Meanwhile, talks have already begun for USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino to take the helm, returning to the Premier League two and a half years after leaving Chelsea and mere months after signing a new deal with US Soccer. It would appear that unfinished business in England — and the Old Trafford vacancy to which he has been linked for so long — has tempted the Argentine away on the eve of the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinals.
Source: CBS Sports
