📅 November 6, 2026
Carrick on Matching Ferguson: “It’s Not Impossible”, but Not Overnight
Watch the video version of this story On @mavjonesdotcom, in about a minute. ▶ Play on TikTok
Michael Carrick was asked on Friday whether anyone can ever match what Sir Alex Ferguson built at Manchester United. “It’s not impossible. Anything’s possible,” he said. Then came the caveat: “It’s not going to happen overnight.”
That was the theme of his pre-Aston Villa press conference, in the week of the 40th anniversary of Ferguson’s appointment. Patience, consistency and no shortcuts, from a manager whose own future may depend on Sunday. He also confirmed Carlos Baleba is out for weeks and said Patrick Dorgu is only slowly getting back.
▶ Follow @mavjonesdotcom on TikTok
Ferguson, and the case for time
Asked how hard it is for the modern club to live up to the Ferguson years, Carrick didn’t pretend it was easy. “It’s difficult to bring success. It was difficult then, it’s difficult now,” he said, before the line AFP led with: “Success does take time, and we don’t like having to spend time. But it does take a period of time to build.”
He pointed to last season as proof of what’s possible, then to what’s missing now. “Sustaining it is the key. Consistency is the key. There’s no other way of doing it. There’s no shortcuts to it.”
Asked whether a manager today can expect the time Ferguson was given, he said the game had changed and United had to “live in the present”, then added: “Time, patience, patience. But we’re all desperate to win football matches, and win them as quickly as we possibly can.”
On Ferguson himself, he said he speaks to him more now than he did as a player: “The impact he had on me as an individual was immense.”
Roma was one night
Carrick shut down a comparison with Mark Robins’s famous goal from Ferguson’s early years straight away (“No comparisons”), and wouldn’t let Tuesday’s comeback against Roma be more than it was. “It was a good night for us all. But nothing’s done yet. Nothing’s achieved yet,” he said. “It’s one moment, really, in time that we need to use to move forward.”
He’d watched the games back and thought the halves that went wrong weren’t as bad as they looked. “We’ve definitely shown signs of improvement, no doubt,” he said, and the problem was “little moments in games” the team “maybe haven’t been quite ready for”. His fix was simple: “We’ve just got to do things better for longer.”
Team news
Carlos Baleba won’t be back until after the international break. “Carlos, we don’t know exactly, but it’ll be a number of weeks,” Carrick said. “It’s definitely not this week, and it won’t be any time over the international break. It’ll be a little bit longer than that.” He came off injured against Roma.
Patrick Dorgu trained with the group at the start of the week, but only a “very small” amount. “We’ve got to be patient with Patrick,” Carrick said, describing “a couple of hamstrings that we need to manage”. He’s “slowly getting back with us”, and whether he’s involved on Sunday is still open.
Carrick named Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw but gave no update on either. Sports Mole and the Mirror both have them out of the Villa game. Lisandro Martinez serves his one-match ban for the red card at Chelsea.
The “devil” question
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told Norway’s TV2, in comments reported on 1 November, that there’s a “devil” in Carrick that people don’t see. Carrick said he hadn’t seen the interview, and that “there’s probably not a lot of people that really, really know what I’m like.” Pushed on whether there’s a devil in there, he said: “I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe.” He called Solskjaer “a fantastic manager, fantastic person” and said it would be great to see him back in management.
Our view
Everything Carrick said was right, and none of it will matter much if United don’t beat Villa. You can’t argue with patience and consistency as a plan. But the club has reportedly ruled out another interim if it makes a change, and Sunday comes right before a review over the break. So Carrick needs a result now to earn the time he’s asking for.
The Roma win showed the team can still play for him. He didn’t get carried away after it, and he didn’t today either. Without Baleba, Martinez, Rashford and Shaw, it’s a thin squad against a good Villa side. A win would make his case for him. A defeat would leave patience a hard sell.
United host Villa on Sunday 8 November at 4:30pm UK (11:30am ET), 17th in the Premier League on seven points from nine games.
▶ Follow @mavjonesdotcom on TikTok
Sources: Carrick’s quotes from The Peoples Person’s live transcript (Red Billy), 6 November, checked against AFP (6 November, 14:31 UTC), Sports Mole (6 November) and the Mirror (Kieran Horn, 6 November). The Ferguson, Roma and team news quotes appear in at least two of them. The Solskjaer exchange, the Robins answer and the “signs of improvement” line are from the transcript only. Solskjaer’s TV2 comments via Football365, 1 November. Rashford and Shaw’s absence and the league position from Sports Mole and the Mirror. Our view is our own.