Did somebody say déjà vu?
The verb ‘sleeping’ is one often associated with Manchester United Football Club in their pursuit of the return to the very pinnacle of English football.
So often, the ‘sleeping giants’ have been dreaming of meaningful silverware, but, in reality, United are sleepwalking into a nightmare of mistakes already made.
If anything is indicative of the Red Devils’ downfall, it’s the perpetual cycle of making the same mistakes over and over without learning from them.
Whether it’s over-inflated signings, exciting – but unproven – European managers, or failing to overhaul entire squads before deadwood returns, it’s safe to say United have been in a rut for the last decade (at least compared to their lofty expectations).
Whenever things appear to be back on the up, and hope rears its misleading head, the crumbling foundations bring the whole thing crashing down.
This is why Manchester United must be wary of the ghost of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, embodied in the form of Michael Carrick.
The archetype is well-known; former legend of the club comes in as caretaker manager and bails out a few buckets of water from a sinking ship.
Fans, pundits and ex-players will cry “he knows the club, he knows the philosophy, he has Sir Alex Ferguson’s blessing”.
Well if blessings won football matches, United surely wouldn’t have any more problems to solve.
It doesn’t take much for fans to hop on the bandwagon either, as we saw with Ruud van Nistelrooy’s short tenure before he got Leicester relegated.
While it cannot be disputed that Michael Carrick has done a fantastic job turning the club around and has all but guaranteed Champions League football, the red flags linger ominously in the far future.
Put it this way, unless you’re Tottenham Hotspur, the new manager bounce is to be expected, and it didn’t take a genius to start playing Bruno Fernandes – the best midfielder in the world – in his usual number 10 position, do away with the nervy back five, and actually play Kobbie Mainoo.
Effectively, all Carrick had to do was not continue to take a chainsaw to his own ship like Ruben Amorim was doing.
Is all of this not exactly what happened with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer?
A former player with a good vibe comes in to lift the dire mood left in the camp by a characteristically chaotic manager such as José Mourinho.
Things instantly picked up and the good results flew in with a nice win against Man City to boot.
Before you know it, United are in the Champions League and Ole is “at the wheel”.
However, a couple of years pass and the man is a shell of himself, struggling to adapt to tactics of the highest level and overrun by self-important players making the rules themselves.
Ole ends up as a supply teacher in his own school, lacking the authority to put those out of line in to place and the losses pile up, leading to his eventual sacking.
The parallels with Michael Carrick, despite it being early days, are too clear to ignore – we’ve been here before.
While the prospect of Carrick is tempting, it takes cut-throat leadership and wise foresight to turn it away.
Ultimately, he remains too much of an unknown to take a punt on, with just a bitter-sweet Middlesborough tenure to show for his experience.
A three-year Carrick cycle would take us up to 2030, and almost two decades since United last won the league, the sort of taunt the club’s fans used to make towards their sworn rivals Liverpool.
If not Carrick, then who?
Surely the real holy grail for a team like United at this point is a manager with success in recent times, not a Van Gaal or even a Mourinho – despite some of his self-professed fantastic achievements – but someone of this era.
Luis Enrique is obviously a pipe dream and, while a serial European winner, Zidane has verbally agreed to become the France coach.
Either way, Spain seems to be the way forward. Unai Emery would be the choice of predilection for someone who has proven they can succeed in a project like at Aston Villa and also has history winning European trophies.
Andoni Iraola is also a great alternative and looks set for the very top.
Meanwhile, if United want a proper manager, but in the form of the Carrick and Ole archetype, Brighton’s Fabian Hurzeler stands out as a thrilling prospect, although maybe too unproven.
Look, Carrick might just be the chosen one, no one really knows in football, nothing is guaranteed.
However, it’s about giving yourself the best shot at success, and for United it’s absolutely crucial they do not sleepwalk down the same dead ends already trodden.
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