On Saturday morning, just outside Old Trafford, fans were greeted by the newest edition of the renowned Manchester United fanzine, United We Stand. The cover prominently featured an image of the team’s first-team manager, emblazoned with the words ‘Cool Calm Collected Carrick,’ setting the tone for the day.

As evening descended and fans trickled out of the stadium, making their way back along Warwick Road, the atmosphere was almost festive. Michael Carrick, in his brief tenure since January 13th, had just guided Manchester United to a fourth consecutive league victory, rekindling the vibrant, celebratory spirit that Old Trafford is known for.

Since taking the helm, Carrick has initiated a quiet yet profound transformation within the club. His demeanor—cool, calm, and collected—reflects in his strategic decisions. By positioning players in roles that play to their strengths and adapting the team’s formation to maximize their talents, Carrick has reignited both player and fan confidence.

Among those benefiting from this refreshed approach is Kobbie Mainoo. Previously sidelined under former manager Ruben Amorim, Mainoo now shines brighter than ever and appears to be a strong contender for the England squad this summer.

Bruno Fernandes, already a standout performer, has thrived even more since Carrick repositioned him further up the field. Meanwhile, talents like Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo have emerged as thrilling prospects, and Amad Diallo has embraced greater responsibility on the pitch.

Michael Carrick has completely turned around Manchester United’s season, winning his first four games in charge as interim boss

The 2-0 win over Tottenham on Saturday moved United to within three points of third place

In characteristic fashion, Carrick has orchestrated these changes without seeking the spotlight. He remains modest, cautioning against drawing too many conclusions from a limited number of games. When asked about his future at the club, Carrick gracefully sidesteps, focusing instead on the team and its continued progress.

And the word from inside the club is similarly cautious. Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his lieutenants, we are told, have already begun the search for a long-term appointment to replace Amorim, whose cursed reign is being damned more deeply with every day that Carrick blows his happy breeze through the corridors at Old Trafford.

To say they have already begun the search for Amorim’s replacement sounds thorough and wise and it is hard to blame the United hierarchy for being circumspect after the calamitous missteps Ratcliffe and his executive class have made in their time in charge of football operations at the club.

But now the solution to their search is staring them right in the face. They deserve much credit for alighting on Carrick as the temporary manager but after the transformation he has effected, they need to act decisively, seize the momentum that is coursing through the club at last and give Carrick the job full-time now.

Forget the idea of waiting until the summer. That risks looking as if you have doubts about Carrick. That risks looking as if you think there is a better option who will become available after the World Cup. That risks allowing the one good decision you have made to be lost in a fog of confusion, controversy and chaos.

The idea of waiting until the summer sounds fine until you analyse it. Wait for what? Wait for who? For Oliver Glasner, the bookmakers’ favourite for the job after Carrick, the Crystal Palace boss who has done a fine job at Selhurst Park but whose team had gone 12 games without a win until they beat Brighton on Sunday, who had been knocked out of the FA Cup by Macclesfield and dragged to the edge of a relegation fight?

For Thomas Tuchel, next in the bookmakers’ rankings? Tuchel is a brilliant manager. There is no doubting that. But United have already blown one chance to appoint him and there is no chance of appointing him this summer without dragging the club into an almighty storm.

Tuchel, in case you had forgotten, is set to lead England into a World Cup this summer, a World Cup many fancy them to win. The World Cup final is on July 19, a month before the Premier League season begins.

Carrick has taken down Man City, Arsenal and Tottenham already in his brief time in charge

Thomas Tuchel (left) cannot be seen to be negotiating with United while he is still England boss, while the failures of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (right) cannot be held against Carrick

So tell me how that could possibly work? United would have to agree the appointment of Tuchel before the World Cup began and history tells us that the moment news leaked out that Tuchel was even in discussions with United, his position as England manager would become untenable.

We English are not particularly sanguine about that kind of thing. Then again, neither are the Spanish. When Spain manager Julen Lopetegui agreed to take the Real Madrid job in time for the start of the 2018-19 season, he was sacked by the Spanish Football Federation on the eve of that summer’s World Cup.

That’s the kind of chaos United would court if they pursued Tuchel. And the same would apply if they went for Carlo Ancelotti, the Brazil boss, or Julian Nagelsmann, who is scheduled to be leading Germany to the USA, Mexico and Canada in a few months.

Please don’t quote Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at me, either. There is no logic to the argument that just because Solskjaer had a great start as a caretaker and then failed that the same thing will automatically happen to Carrick.

They are different coaches from different backgrounds with different methods and different principles. There are no guarantees in football: a club that has seen Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Erik ten Hag and Amorim leave the club as broken and bitter men knows that only too well.

The difference Carrick has made has propelled United up to fourth in the table. They have a visit to West Ham on Tuesday evening that looks more difficult than it would have done a few weeks ago. West Ham, too, have wind in their sails. They may provide the first blot on Carrick’s record. It should not matter a jot. Carrick has shown enough already to prove he deserves a longer shot at the job.

It is time for Ratcliffe and his henchmen to seize the moment. Why ignore the evidence in front of their own eyes? Why turn away from what Carrick has proved already?

They got something right for once when they turned to Carrick for help. Don’t ruin it now just when a sliver of light is appearing at the end of the tunnel.

Carrick has shown enough already to prove he deserves a longer shot at the job

The United hierarchy got something right for once when they turned to Carrick for help. Don’t ruin it now just when a sliver of light is appearing at the end of the tunnel

VAR was right to disallow beautifully chaotic City goal 

There was an intoxicating beauty to the chaos that enveloped the end of Liverpool’s match with Manchester City on Sunday and, for many, that beauty has been sullied by the intervention of VAR to disallow what would have been the visitors’ third goal.

I share some of that disappointment. In a sport that is losing touch with its core supporters and turning more and more bland and more and more corporate, there was something wonderfully lawless and free about the sequence of events that saw Dominik Szoboszlai hauling back Erling Haaland and Haaland hauling back Szoboszlai as both men chased a ball trundling towards the Liverpool net.

My instinct, too, was to bemoan a lack of common sense in the officiating and wish that referee Craig Pawson had simply allowed the goal to stand. But then, much though we sometimes wish it were, football is not supposed to be anarchy.

Even in the good old days before VAR, there were still rules. The referee had ignored Szoboszlai’s foul on Haaland and played advantage. He had done the right thing once. How far do you let a sequence of fouls continue?

Even in the good old days before VAR, there were still rules – and that’s why Erling Haaland had to be penalised for his pull on Dominik Szoboszlai

I’m sure you noticed, too, that after the ball had rolled over the line, Szoboszlai leapt up and began complaining bitterly to Mr Pawson. I presume he was pointing out he had been fouled by Haaland. If Mr Pawson, or VAR, had not given the foul, this is a world where his inaction would have given rise to conspiracy theories about referees favouring Manchester City.

I have grown to loathe VAR, not because of its hair-breadth offside decisions but because of the way it takes the spontaneity out of celebrating but even within that context, there are sometimes moments where a referee needs to intervene, even when we don’t want them to.

Sometimes, rules deny us great goals. Sometimes, rules get in the way of roiling anarchy. Sometimes, we wish it were otherwise, but it is what they are there for.