Is Eddie Howe set to replace Michael Carrick at Manchester United.
I was talking to my mate on Thursday who is a Man U fan.
He is actually one of a rare breed, a Manchester United fan who does indeed come from that City although he relocated up to a far better place some years ago.
He loves it up here.
He still loves his football club but admits that living in Newcastle Upon Tyne is a huge upgrade on Manchester and he would never move back.
My Manchester United friend kept his longstanding season ticket for Old Trafford despite moving to Tyneside and he gets back there for most home games.
When Michael Carrick got the Man U job on a temporary basis in January we both agreed what would almost certainly happen. Any kind of relative success in the final months of last season and Michael Carrick would be given the job permanently and then Manchester United would quickly live to regret it, a bit like their Ole Gunnar Solskjaer experience. In desperation appoint a former star in a caretaker capacity, wins a few matches and the Man U fans clamour for him to get the job on a permanent basis, then trapped in a very tricky situation.
Sir Jim Rat gave Michael Carrick the job for all the wrong reasons and now the Manchester United fans are seeing what a disaster it has been.
Whatever actually happens in the end, the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool have all appointed new managers this summer for all the right reasons, in my opinion. Picking the best man for the job who they believe has the right profile for what they are trying to do.
Manchester United on the other hand made a lazy desperate appointment based on appeasing the fanbase with a club legend and then hoping for the best.
Despite all their huge advantages over almost every other club, especially when it comes to paying wages and transfer fees, Manchester United have looked a total shambles this season. Losing to and outplayed by promoted Hull, scrambling a 2-2 draw against Everton having led twice, losing against Man City and hardly forcing a save despite having a man advantage for 75 minutes, then losing at home to Brighton who had made multiple changes in the cup despite Man U leading 2-0 after ten minutes. Their only domestic win in the five games so far carried massive luck, Ipswich went to Old Trafford and were the best team, took the lead and should have increased that, only for a player to slip and gift an equaliser and then more bad luck for the visitors allowed Man U to take the lead and go on to win.
My Manchester United mate and the many other Man U fans he mixes with are absolutely sure that they need to get rid of Michael Carrick as soon as possible.
This leads to the question of who to replace him with?
This is where it starts to worry me.
My Man U mate says he and many others see Eddie Howe as a no-brainer for the Old Trafford job. He says that many others in their fanbase believe the same from what he has seen online.
They see Eddie Howe as somebody who did an incredible job at Newcastle United, including beating Manchester United time after time (most recently when United had to play with ten men for most of the match at SJP and yet still beat Man U, Eddie Howe schooling Michael Carrick). A belief that with the vast resources he would have access to at Old Trafford, Eddie Howe could finally be the one to bring sanity there and make the club a huge success on the pitch.
This is where it gets really worrying because I totally agree.
If Eddie Howe got the job at Manchester United then I think he would do a great job and the thought of watching on from afar as he did that….well, I don’t even want to believe this will happen ever, never mind only a couple of months after leaving United.
The truth is though, it is all but inevitable that Eddie Howe will eventually be appointed by one of the clubs with far bigger current resources than Newcastle United have AND he will do really well.
I would love to think England would be his next job but doubt it, I think that will come later as he has unfinished business in club football and loves that day to day involvement.
The one thing I am clinging to at the moment is that I think for sure he will repeat what he did when resigning from Bournemouth. Spend a year with his family and getting himself in right frame of mind and fully recovered (he was in hospital really ill with pneumonia only five months ago) before he takes his next job.
In the meantime, I have told my Manchester United mate that surely Man U need to be looking in the short-term for another former playing legend to come in and replace Michael Carrick, surely the time has finally come for…Steve Bruce.