Luis Enrique: The Ideal Coach for Manchester United?

Manchester United have been urged to chase the man many see as the best coach in the world – but warned he would have to be a “nutcase” to walk into Old Trafford right now.

The plea comes from someone who knows the club from the inside. Benni McCarthy, a former assistant under Erik ten Hag, has looked at the latest spiral of uncertainty and pointed straight at Luis Enrique as the ideal candidate, even as he admits the job is close to toxic.

Another storm at Old Trafford

The cycle has become grimly familiar. Manchester United hit turbulence, the manager’s position comes under scrutiny, and the shortlist of supposed saviours begins to circulate.

This time it is Michael Carrick under the glare. The former midfielder will remain in the dugout for Sunday’s visit of Bournemouth, but beyond that, the ground beneath him is clearly shifting. The club are actively weighing up a change, another reset in a decade full of them.

Names are already in the air. Antonio Conte has been strongly linked from Italy, only for the fiery Italian to snap back on Friday, dismissing talk of “advanced” negotiations with United. Fabian Hurzeler, one of Europe’s most intriguing young coaches, has effectively taken his name out of the running, choosing instead to ride out what is turning into a remarkable season at Brighton before thinking about his next move.

Julian Nagelsmann, Eddie Howe and Unai Emery are all being monitored as United test the market yet again. All proven, all credible. None universally convincing as the man to drag the club back to the game’s summit.

McCarthy, speaking to SportyTV, cut through the noise.

‘The most deserving manager’

For him, the benchmark is clear.

“[Carrick is] a young manager, and even if you go and change now, who are you going to get in his place?” McCarthy asked, before nailing his colours to the mast. The coach he “would love to see at Man United” is Luis Enrique.

Right now, Enrique sits at the top of the managerial tree. His work at PSG has been ruthless and relentless. Back‑to‑back Champions League titles have turned the Parisian club from perennial underachievers into Europe’s standard-bearers, and he has done it while reshaping their identity.

Under Enrique, a squad of superstars has been welded into a team that presses ferociously, hunts in packs and shows no sign of easing off despite being stacked with serial winners. The complacency that often seeps into dominant sides has been shut out.

On pure football grounds, he is exactly the kind of figure United crave: authoritative, tactically sharp, unafraid of egos, and proven on the biggest stage.

Yet even as he put Enrique on a pedestal, McCarthy didn’t pretend the idea was realistic.

“For me, the most deserving manager that I would love to see at Man United is Luis Enrique, but he ain’t going to leave PSG. I wouldn’t do that if I were him,” he said, bluntly.

“They have the money, but I think you’d be a nutcase if you left what is being built at PSG to come to Man United.”

A brutal verdict on United’s hierarchy

McCarthy’s criticism did not stop at the touchline. He turned his fire on the club’s ownership and decision-makers, arguing that United’s problems run far deeper than the name on the manager’s office door.

“There’s no consistency because when you do well, you’ve only done well, not amazing,” he said. The message was clear: the bar keeps shifting, and the club keep failing to build on their own progress.

Recruitment, in his view, has become the fault line.

“You have to recruit better; you have to add quality to the team that’s done well,” he insisted. Each time United find a degree of stability, they squander the chance to consolidate it.

“Every single time some sort of stability comes, you see the following season there aren’t enough quality players brought in to create competition and strengthen the side.”

That, for McCarthy, is the pattern that defines the post‑Sir Alex Ferguson era. A decent season, some optimism, and then a summer that fails to match the ambition of a club that still calls itself one of the biggest in the world.

“We’ve (Man Utd) done well, so we keep the same team. We’ve got to provide competition for the players that we have,” he added. The contrast with the game’s most ruthless operators is stark.

“So that’s why they keep strengthening the team, and Man United don’t seem to do that very well when they’re on the back of a good season; then they rest on their laurels, and instead of adding to help those players now to elevate them, they just keep it the same.

“Then you have shortcomings in the new season, and everybody kind of seems to pass you by, and I think that’s what they need to try and change: a better recruitment structure and a more consistent basis.”

Enrique dream meets hard reality

Even if United’s hierarchy took McCarthy’s advice and went all in for Enrique, the reality is brutal.

PSG moved decisively to lock down their architect. In September, the French champions handed Enrique a new and improved contract, tying him to the club until 2030. He is now at the centre of a long-term project at what is, right now, Europe’s No 1 club.

From that vantage point, the chaos of Old Trafford looks less like an opportunity and more like a warning sign.

United can change the man on the touchline again. They can draw up lists, hold talks, and float ambitious names. Until they fix the structure McCarthy so openly attacked, the bigger question will linger: which elite manager would truly risk everything to take this on?