Manchester United
Lionsgate’s Manchester United Drama: a Crown-style project and bold casting ideas
Lionsgate plan a dramatized Manchester United series inspired by The Crown, with proposed casting.tv
“Hated, adored, never ignored.”
Lionsgate have struck a deal with Manchester United to develop a dramatic retelling of the club’s history, a move revealed by The Athletic. The project is reportedly still in a brainstorming phase and the Netflix series The Crown has been floated as a loose touchstone for the format.
Suggestions for casting run from the club’s origin story through to its modern controversies. The Major, the St Bernard whose loss and recovery connected club captain Harry Stafford with local businessman John Henry Davies, remains a founding detail of the Newton Heath saga. The draft notes that Chris, the St Bernard which starred in Beethoven in 1992, is no longer around, but perhaps one of his descendants could play The Major.
Sir Matt Busby’s rebuilding after Old Trafford was bombed in World War II and the temporary groundshare at Maine Road would be central scenes. Brendan Gleeson is offered as a candidate to portray Busby, with the series including lines such as: “At United we strive for perfection. If we fail, we might just have to settle for excellence”.
The Munich air disaster and its aftermath are intrinsic to the club’s story. The draft recalls that more than half of the 44 occupants died in 1958, including eight players, and that Sir Bobby Charlton would lift the European Cup exactly 10 years after that tragedy in Germany. Eddie Redmayne is suggested for a young Charlton.
The piece outlines a long list of possible castings: Paul Mescal, already cast as Paul McCartney elsewhere, proposed as a cheeky option to play George Best; Denis Law’s 1973 career-ending moment viewed in an Aberdeen pub; Cosmo Jarvis for Roy Keane; Timothée Chalamet for Ryan Giggs; Leo Woodall, Joe Alwyn and Josh O’Connell among names floated for David Beckham; Stephen Graham for Paul Scholes; and Jack O’Connell for Wayne Rooney.
Ownership and managerial periods are also covered, from Malcolm Glazer — described by one judge as a “snake is sheep’s clothing rather than a wolf in sheep’s clothing” — to Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The draft proposes Toby Jones for Glazer and Gary Oldman for Ratcliffe, with Michael Sheen a suggested fit for David Moyes’s tenure. Rio Ferdinand’s own words on acting are retained: “I’d go for an emotional part, something off the wall,” “I’ve got too much for a henchman role. I’d need for it to be, I dunno, like Luther.
“Or if they’re looking for a new James Bond, I wouldn’t say that’s out of my comfort zone at all.”
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.
Manchester United
Why Manchester United’s Eddie Howe Pursuit Carries a Real Financial Cost
Howe would cost United millions before wages, compensation and debt shape the decision.
Manchester United’s reported interest in Eddie Howe would not come cheaply. If the club want to move for the former Newcastle United boss, they would first need to pay around $4 million (£3 million) simply to prise him away from the terms of his agreement on Tyneside.
United have told the media, rather than issued a public statement, that Michael Carrick will remain in charge until Saturday’s Premier League match with Chelsea. What comes next is still unclear, and the thinking behind that shift has not been fully explained.
Money is a central part of the issue. Howe is understood to be among the leading candidates for the increasingly unsettled Old Trafford job and could, in theory, be available after leaving Newcastle over the summer. But that departure reportedly triggered compensation of about $4 million, as first revealed by The Guardian.
United would then also need to meet the salary expectations of Howe and his long-serving assistant Jason Tindall, described by The Athletic as “not insignificant in the eyes of United.” Carrick would also require compensation, although United limited that risk by giving the former interim manager a two-year contract rather than the three-year terms usually handed to his predecessors.
Even combined, the overall bill would still likely sit below eight figures. In the wider world of modern football, that is not an extraordinary sum. Yet in United’s current climate, it is being treated as meaningful. The club has spent the past year under intense financial pressure, with minority co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe saying in March 2025 that “the club runs out of money at Christmas” without drastic cost-cutting.
United later announced record revenues above $900 million and an operating profit of $30 million, despite no European football. Still, the club’s debt remains a major drag. Malcolm Glazer’s 2005 leveraged buyout loaded United with borrowing, and in 2025-26 alone the club spent $92.5 million, pushing total expenditure beyond $1.3 billion across two decades.
Chief executive Omar Berrada praised “the underlying strength of our business” while adding: “We will continue to take a disciplined approach to ensure our finances remain sustainable.” That discipline has already shown up in the transfer market, and now appears to extend to coaching decisions as well.
Manchester United
Carrick Kept in Place as United Delay a Decision on the Dugout
United have kept Michael Carrick for Chelsea, but the pressure, uncertainty and successor talk remain in place.
Manchester United have opted to keep Michael Carrick in charge for Saturday’s Premier League meeting with Chelsea, according to multiple reports. The move amounts to a stay of execution, but the reason for it, and how long it will last, remains uncertain.
Reports first outlined by Mike Keegan of The Overlap say the club’s senior figures have handed Carrick “the opportunity to turn things around”. What form that chance will take is not yet clear, and any fresh defeat against Chelsea would likely drag the pressure straight back onto the manager, unless there is a public endorsement from above. Even then, that kind of backing can often be the final warning rather than a safeguard.
Carrick’s presence continues to divide the mood around the club. At Old Trafford on Sunday, he received a warm response from the stands, with supporters singing his name as he waved what looked like an early goodbye. The players and executives were treated far less kindly. There were pointed chants against co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the Glazer family and technical director Jason Wilcox, while the refrain “Sell United and f— off home” rang out loudly.
That fan support for Carrick has not been ignored by those inside the club, with ESPN reporting it “did not go unnoticed”. In a toxic atmosphere, a manager who remains popular with supporters can serve as a useful buffer, although whether Carrick is comfortable being cast in that role is another matter.
The playing squad, meanwhile, is split. Bruno Fernandes has made his position clear, but there is also visible backing for Carrick. Senne Lammens offered support before the Bournemouth defeat, a stance later echoed by Harry Maguire, who said: “We’re fully behind Michael,”. “As individuals, we’re not playing well enough.”
The Guardian reports that Wilcox is driving the decision to retain Carrick, at least for now, while also leading the argument for Eddie Howe as a possible successor. Howe is expected to cost £3 million ($4 million) after agreeing future compensation with Newcastle United during his summer exit.
The calendar may yet work in United’s favour. The lack of Carabao Cup involvement gives the hierarchy five clear days after Chelsea to act, before Roma in the Champions League and then Aston Villa in the Premier League. The November international break could also open a more convenient window.
Asked why United keep finding themselves in the same mess, Carrick replied: “If I really had the answers, I wouldn’t have let it happen,” and added, “If I could do something about it and there was something that I could really control, then I would’ve tried to do everything I can to not be in this position.”
His point is hard to dispute. The wider problems at United run far beyond one manager, with the Glazers’ 2005 leveraged buyout beginning a financial slide that has left the club more than $1.5 billion in debt and owing almost $500 million in transfer fees. Ratcliffe has said the club was close to running out of cash flow before cuts were imposed. Even after a stronger summer 2025 window, the damage of years of mismanagement remains.
