Roy Keane delivered a string of contradictory assessments about Michael Carrick\u2019s prospects as Manchester United manager across appearances last week. Initially blunt, Keane said: “If United win every game until the end of the season, I still wouldn\u2019t be giving him the job,” but he returned four days later with a different tone. “I hope they give it to him. I hope they give it to him in the summer,” Keane said on The Overlap\u2019s Stick to Football podcast. Before Gary Neville could leap in to point out the flip-flopped opinion, Keane tried to clarify his position: “I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the right decision, but good luck with it.” Keane has long argued there are stronger managerial candidates available. “I think you can get a better manager than Carrick, absolutely,” he said. He also acknowledged Carrick\u2019s current run of results: “But he\u2019s doing a good job, perfect timing for him, and even if he doesn\u2019t get the United job, these results, a bit like Ruud [van Nistelrooy], he can get another job, probably another Premiership manager.” Keane warned that success as caretaker does not automatically translate to long-term title challenges. “As a caretaker manager, it\u2019s a different animal to being manager of United trying to win league titles over the next two, three, four, five years,” he added. Keane invoked the recent history of short-term appointments and cited Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r as an example of an interim appointment that earned a long contract but ultimately failed to deliver sustained silverware. Keane has also named Eddie Howe as his preferred long-term option. On the club\u2019s immediate prospects, he predicted: “I think they will get top four.” With 15 games remaining, United sit in that position. Forecasts outside the club are less optimistic. Opta\u2019s supercomputer predicts United will slip behind Liverpool and Chelsea to finish sixth, giving them little more than a 20% chance of qualifying for next season\u2019s Champions League. Keane\u2019s commentary combined clear praise for Carrick\u2019s results with persistent doubts about his suitability as a long-term appointment, a stance complicated by his moments of public support and scepticism. Lisa Roughead\u2019s decade-old view of Keane\u2019s punditry as saying “anything to provoke a reaction” was also referenced by the pundit\u2019s critics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Keane flip-flopped on Carrick, praising results yet urging a stronger long-term candidate at United.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,969],"tags":[1162,1087],"class_list":["post-6344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-coaching-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}