Eddie Howe Emerges as Top Contender to Succeed Michael Carrick at Manchester United

Jason Wilcox has moved quietly but decisively towards his preferred successor to Michael Carrick at Manchester United – and two serious contenders have already been pushed to the side.

Carrick remains in the dugout for now, but only just. Five defeats in United’s first 11 games of the season have shredded early optimism, and the 4-1 humiliation at Como in midweek has turned a bad start into a full-blown crisis. Losing heavily to a Serie A side making their Champions League debut was damaging enough; what followed made it worse.

Bruno Fernandes broke ranks after the final whistle, openly questioning Carrick’s tactical approach. For a captain at Manchester United, that is a line you cross only once. The backlash was instant and ferocious. Wayne Rooney led the charge, branding Fernandes and Lisandro Martinez – who had already taken aim at technical director Jason Wilcox last week – as “selfish babies”. The dressing room has gone loud, and that is rarely good news for a manager on the brink.

Yet Carrick survives, at least until Sunday. He will lead United against Bournemouth and is scheduled to face the media on Friday afternoon. The message from the club is that Wilcox, for now, still backs his head coach. But that backing comes with a clear caveat.

According to a report from The Athletic, co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is prepared to overrule Wilcox if he feels the situation is spiralling, with the billionaire leaning on data and AI-driven analysis as part of the process to identify the next United manager. The numbers may be cold, but the mood around Carrick is anything but.

Wilcox, aware of how quickly “backing” can turn into a goodbye handshake at Old Trafford, has already started his contingency planning. As talkSPORT’s chief football correspondent Alex Crook reports, the former Southampton man is now “leaning towards Eddie Howe” as his favoured option if Carrick’s position becomes untenable.

Howe is no stranger to United’s radar. During the final days of Erik ten Hag’s tenure, then-sporting director Dan Ashworth championed the Newcastle manager as the ideal candidate to take over. In the end, Wilcox went another way, opting for Ruben Amorim. The club moved on; Howe stayed put on Tyneside and rebuilt Newcastle’s trajectory.

This time the landscape is different. Howe is out of work after leaving Newcastle in the summer. He had been expected to take a breather from the touchline, to reset after the intensity of the project under new ownership. But the United job is not just another vacancy. The feeling within recruitment circles is that, if Old Trafford comes calling, Howe would listen.

Inside the football department, there is not total alignment. Director of recruitment Christopher Vivell is understood to be pushing hard for Julian Nagelsmann, a coach he knows well and rates highly. Nagelsmann brings European pedigree and tactical innovation, but Wilcox’s stance is clear: he prefers Howe.

The reasoning is simple and rooted in the Premier League. Howe knows the division inside out, from firefighting with Bournemouth to reshaping Newcastle into Champions League qualifiers. Wilcox believes that experience gives Howe an edge in the eyes of both Ratcliffe and the Glazer family, and his opinion is expected to carry significant weight when decisions are finally made.

Other names tick the boxes on Wilcox’s list but fall away under scrutiny. Unai Emery fits the criteria in terms of tactical acumen and top-level experience, yet Aston Villa’s resurgence under his watch has driven his price – and the cost of prising him away – into uncomfortable territory. Fabian Hürzeler, the Brighton boss, is another admired for his progressive style and clear identity, but the 31-year-old is settled on the south coast and, at this stage, not prepared to walk out for United.

So the shortlist narrows. Emery is too expensive. Hürzeler is unavailable. Nagelsmann has his backers, but not the key one. And in the middle of the storm, Carrick clings to the job while Wilcox quietly lines up Eddie Howe as the man he believes can steady, and then relaunch, a listing giant.

Sunday’s game against Bournemouth will be framed as just another early-season fixture. It is anything but. Every result, every performance, every post-match word now feeds into a bigger question: is Carrick fighting for a project, or simply keeping the seat warm for Howe?