Premier League
Support-staff uncertainty complicates Solskjær interim candidacy at Manchester United
United weigh Solskjær for interim role, but doubts over which coaches would join him for now today.
Manchester United remain undecided over who will lead the senior team for the remainder of the 2025/26 season following last week’s dismissal of Ruben Amorim. Ole Gunnar Solskjær, currently listed as the club’s U18s manager, is among those being considered for a more formal interim role until a permanent appointment is made in the summer. A potential complication for his case is a lack of clarity over which coaches would form his backroom team.
Other internal and former figures are also under consideration. Michael Carrick and Ruud van Nistelrooy are on the list, with Carrick having been the first to hold a face-to-face meeting with senior staff. Solskjær followed suit on Saturday. Van Nistelrooy has not yet met the hierarchy. ESPN notes that Fletcher has impressed the club hierarchy, while Van Nistelrooy is said to believe he features lower down the list of options.
The question of support staff is acute given Solskjær’s recent managerial path. His last Manchester United support team included Mike Phelan, Kieran McKenna and Carrick. He inherited McKenna and Carrick and later brought Phelan back. McKenna is now a manager in his own right, and it is unclear whether Carrick would accept a return to a support role.
Amorim’s entire coaching team were sacked alongside him and are likely to remain aligned with the Portuguese coach in whatever role he takes next. That continuity contrasts with Solskjær’s more fragmented coaching links since leaving Old Trafford in 2021. His brief spell at Beşiktaş was his only managerial job since that departure, and in Türkiye he reunited with Erling Moe, his former Molde assistant from eight years earlier. Moe did not follow Solskjær to Manchester in 2018 and instead replaced him at Molde.
Given those circumstances, the club faces a familiar choice between short-term stability and a broader search. At present, who would be available and willing to form a Solskjær backroom remains unclear.
Manchester United
Šeško setback deepens United’s forward-line problems
Šeško’s delayed return leaves United short of options and increases pressure on Carrick.
Manchester United have been handed another damaging blow, with Benjamin Šeško now expected to miss the rest of the calendar year.
According to The Athletic, the Slovenia international is not due back until January, a timeline that only adds to the pressure around the United boss, who could by then already be out of a job. The setback is a serious one for a side already battling through a difficult spell.
Šeško is believed to have played through the final two months of last season with the shin problem that is still affecting him. Even so, he played a part in helping United secure Champions League qualification. That history makes the current decision easier to understand, but no less painful for the club.
United chose not to send the 23-year-old for surgery over the summer. Instead, they opted for an extended period of rest in the hope that it would help him recover fully. The club has now concluded that he needs a longer spell out to reduce the risk of the problem returning later.
For Carrick, the timing could hardly be worse. United’s wider crisis has already included mutiny, humiliation and supporter unrest, and this latest development arrives just as the season enters a decisive phase.
Their issues in front of goal have been obvious across the opening two months. In Šeško’s absence, United have largely relied on improvised solutions at centre forward. Joshua Zirkzee remains the only other natural No. 9, yet his return of 10 goals in 83 appearances underlines why he has not been the answer.
Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Bruno Fernandes have all been used as stand-in strikers ahead of him, but none has thrived there. Carrick now faces the task of finding a lasting fix to a growing problem, with his own position potentially tied to the outcome.
Chelsea
Carrick keeps his job as Fernandes seeks a reset before Chelsea
Carrick stays, Fernandes resets, and United seek relief before Chelsea after a tense week.
Michael Carrick and Bruno Fernandes have reportedly put their differences aside after discussions aimed at clearing the air following Manchester United’s 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth.
The fallout from that result had been severe. Fernandes had already gone public with a striking criticism of the club’s tactical approach after a damaging night in northern Italy, while Lisandro Martínez had earlier taken aim at director of football Jason Wilcox. With United in a difficult moment, Sunday’s loss to Bournemouth had looked likely to bring Carrick’s spell to an end.
Instead, the club have opted to keep him in place for the Premier League meeting with Chelsea this Saturday.
According to The Guardian, that decision has been followed by a reconciliation between Carrick and Fernandes after talks at the club’s training ground on Tuesday. The Portugal international is said to have given “assurances that he is fully committed and intent on trying to turn the team’s season around,” before a full squad meeting in which his teammates “made the same vow.”
That should give the impression of a clean slate, but United’s problems are far from settled. Fernandes is expected to start against Chelsea as he attempts to end a poor spell of form. So far this season, he has managed only four goals and one assist, all of them arriving in home matches against Ipswich Town and Sabah FK.
United’s wider picture remains bleak. They sit 16th in the Premier League and 21st in the Champions League, and they have already gone out of the Carabao Cup after a shock collapse against Brighton & Hove Albion.
Pressure is increasing, and the boos after the Bournemouth defeat were aimed at the players rather than Carrick. Another setback against Chelsea could put the current regime in real danger.
Carrick will hope the latest round of soul-searching leads to a stronger response, and there is at least some indication that part of the dressing room remains aligned with him. “The feeling is that we all want to put it right. Players, staff, everyone,” one unnamed United player recently told BBC Sport.
Arsenal
Arsenal face major selection doubts before Liverpool trip
Arsenal’s injury list is growing before Liverpool, with Rice, Saka, Saliba and others in doubt.
Mikel Arteta has been left juggling a growing list of fitness worries ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Liverpool, with Declan Rice among those under an injury cloud. The midfielder was forced off against Everton last weekend after, in Arteta’s words, he finished with “a problem”, leaving his availability for Sunday’s clash at Anfield uncertain.
Rice is not the only concern. Arteta admitted after Arsenal’s Carabao Cup exit that “Riccardo was out, Noni was out with an ankle and Declan Rice finished with a problem the other day,” underscoring the scale of the issue facing his side.
Some absences, though, are already clearer. Bukayo Saka has joined William Saliba on the list of long-term injuries after damaging his left quad in the Champions League draw with Bayern Munich. Saka is expected to miss at least six weeks and will not be back before the start of December at the earliest.
Saliba’s situation remains less defined. The defender has not played this season since surgery on a persistent back problem that became too much for him at this summer’s World Cup. Arteta has described the signs in his recovery as “very, very positive”, but he has not offered a return date, with the end of November mentioned only as a loose target.
There is also uncertainty around Christos Tzolis. The summer signing picked up a thigh problem while on international duty with Greece in the fall and was ruled out for around three weeks. He may yet have a role on Sunday, but his status remains unresolved.
Elsewhere, Max Dowman will not be able to win Arteta over through the FA, although Arsenal could still try to secure the teenager’s availability by appealing his red card against Fleetwood. The 16-year-old was dismissed for kicking out at Harrison Neal, with the force described as minimal but still enough for a straight red. With no VAR at this stage of the Carabao Cup, Michael Salisbury’s on-field call stood at the time. Dowman was found guilty of violent conduct, which the FA Handbook describes as “when a player uses or attempts to use excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball.”
