Michael Carrick’s future as Manchester United head coach will be determined 800 miles away from Old Trafford in Monaco on Wednesday.
Chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox are flying out for one of their regular pre-planned meetings to discuss strategy around the football club.
On this occasion, the main issue to be decided is Carrick’s future and it is expected that their recommendation will be for the head coach to go.
It is not a situation Sir Jim Ratcliffe would have expected to find himself in again, less than three years after purchasing a minority stake in United.
Ratcliffe has been criticised for many decisions since he bought his 28.94% stake for just over £1bn, but this is one he really needs to get right.
Ratcliffe’s home is in Monaco and his company, Ineos, has offices in the principality. The meeting had also been in the diary for some time as a regular catch-up between senior executives and their boss.
Sources have stressed that the choice of location was not influenced by the debate around Carrick’s future – it just happens to now be the most important item for discussion.
There is daily contact between senior executives so if the meeting was purely to decide Carrick’s fate, it could have been done by video conference. The need to travel to Monaco is not the reason why there is yet to be a decision.
However, it does add a complication given Berrada and Wilcox’s preference is to inform Carrick of any decision face to face.
Leave a Reply