Michael Carrick had a big job on his hands when he joined Manchester United as Roy Keane’s replacement in 2006. Perhaps not even he could have predicted how well thing would go.
An £18.6million signing from Tottenham, Carrick has often been a polarising figure for both club and country, but with five Premier League titles, three League Cups, an FA Cup, the Champions League and the Europa League to his name, he certainly has the honours list to silence the critics.
Here are seven reasons why he will always be loved in the red half of Manchester…
He replaced Roy Keane
Roy Keane’s boots were bloody big ones to fill, but Carrick embraced the challenge of taking on the No.16 shirt the Irishman had occupied for the previous 12 years.
“I think that showed great courage,” said Ferguson at the time. “Sometimes players are a bit superstitious about things like that, but he was keen and said he would gladly take number 16.”
And while Carrick is a completely different character to Keane, he brought with him a range of passing United had missed since the former captain’s acrimonious exit.
“Pass it forward, take risks. You’re not at Leeds or West Ham now you are at Man United,” Keane told Rio Ferdinand during one of the defender’s first training sessions.
It is a mantra Carrick too has lived by.
Carrick’s first look is always forward, and when the opportunity is there to move United up the field, he always takes it, more often than not with a perfectly-timed pass to exactly the position the recipient wanted it.
Much of what Carrick does seems so simple – but only because he made it look that way.
No nonsense
In terms of temperament, Carrick is cool as f***. Nothing fazes him, no one affects him, he just gets the job done.
The 2012-13 season – Sir Alex Ferguson’s last – typified Carrick.
Robin van Persie lit up Old Trafford and won the fans’ Player of the Year award, but it was Carrick that won the players’ award Carrick after what Ferguson described as the midfielder’s “best ever season for Manchester United”.
“Michael is not a guy that seeks a lot of publicity,” Ferguson told the club’s website. “He is a quiet lad. He goes about his life in a similar way to Scholes. It doesn’t mean he is not recognised by us.
“It is quite refreshing in the modern game that we have players who can rely on their ability, not only by promoting or projecting themselves. Michael is mentally strong, too. He has a different personality to most players.”
Captain. Leader. Legend.
Okay, so he lacks Keane’s intensity, but so do 99 per cent of people who are able to function in society.
And when Jose Mourinho took over as United manager in 2016, he was quick to install Carrick as club captain. He leads by example with his performances, but more importantly he has the steel, the standards and the attitude of a United captain.
“I can’t get my head around that – to say top four is acceptable,” Carrick said in 2017. “It’s pretty much win the league or nothing for me.”
And when Wayne Rooney said it was down to him and Carrick to “keep the new players maintaining [United’s] standards”, adding it “became more difficult over the last few years, with some of the players who joined the club”, Carrick struck exactly the right balance between the hard and soft approach.
“That’s fair comment from Wayne,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I’ve got to change the mentality of the players, I just think there’s been a lot of change at the club and when that happens, sometimes it takes a lot of time for people to find their feet and adjust.
“There have been times in the league when standards have dropped – there’s no hiding from that. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get back there again if you keep doing the right things.”
Plenty in the game talk like a winner but lack the self-awareness to ever truly become one. Carrick is not one of them.