Man United were right to sack Michael Carrick - but the club's handling of the situation has been terrible

Following Manchester United's decision to sack Michael Carrick as head coach, Sports Mole's Football Editor Matt Law discusses the major news coming out of Old Trafford.

Matt Law, Football Editor: "Carrick is deeply rooted to the club"

It's a tricky one. You never like to see managers, or anyone, lose their jobs. In any walk of life, it's always a sad time. That is especially so for someone like Michael Carrick, who is undoubtedly a legend of the club. 

He always acted in the right way and has conducted himself in the right way. So there is an added sense of emotion with him. That's not discounting Ten Hag, Louis van Gaal and Ruben Amorim, managers that have left of late.

But Carrick is deeply rooted to the club. His son is in the academy. He loves that football club. He's not from Manchester, but he is very much a part of their history. 

I'm sure he will remain a supporter of the club moving forward. So it's never easy. I think a lot of people expected it to happen after the Bournemouth game at the end of October. 

Ultimately he was given three extra games: the Chelsea game, the Roma game and the Villa game. They were a lot better against Chelsea, but were undone by that red card. Roma managed to get the job done in the end. Then there was that crazy game against Villa where they nicked a point at the death. 

It's been coming. We know about the transfer failings over the summer. United have not had much problem scoring goals this season. 

They are a good attacking team, but the defensive issues have been there for all to see. That's not to say that Carrick hasn't made bad decisions and bad choices at times. 

Of course he has, and he was always going to make mistakes. He is a manager that is very much in the early stages of his career, and I'm sure he will go on. 

He showed decent signs at Middlesbrough, but it didn't end great in the end there. He has now taken charge of 35 games for Man United, including that caretaker spell at the back end of 2021. 

He's won 15 games in this spell and two in the last spell, so 17 overall out of 35. It's not terrific. His work last season getting the club back in the Champions League will be remembered incredibly fondly by the fans, as will the football that was played during a period we thought it couldn't get any lower under Ruben Amorim. 

But the table doesn't lie at this stage of the season. United are 18th in the Premier League table with one win all season. They are only a point off the bottom. You can't paper over those facts. They are what they are. The table is what it is. 

It's been a difficult start to the season. Carrick was going to lose his job. The way it's happened is not ideal. But I think we all expected it, certainly from a United supporters' point of view. 

Interestingly, the briefing coming out of the club after the Villa game was that it was very much business as usual. He was expected to keep his job. 

Then very quickly that changed, with reports earlier this week that he would ultimately be losing his job. So he's gone now. I'm sure he'll go on at some stage and step back into the management game. 

But Man United need to move forward now. As difficult as it was, I think it is the right decision. But it was not conducted how it should have been done. I think it's been done very badly by the club. 

Carrick wasn't in on Monday. On Tuesday he took training, largely academy players. There are first team players that aren't on international duty, such as Harry Maguire, but he has picked up a little injury. 

He took training on Wednesday as well, and arrived at Carrington this morning. But he knew. The reports have been rife. 

Everyone has some form of internet access and would have seen the meeting that happened in Monaco between Berrada, Jason Wilcox and Sir Jim Ratcliffe. 

Very much what we expected to happen has happened. They briefed Ratcliffe that they recommend the decision is made to remove Carrick. 

They presented their evidence of the struggles that have happened. But Berrada and Wilcox get more airtime on the TV. I can't remember any director of football or CEO having as much focus on them, and that's not a good thing. 

The best CEOs in football, the best directors of football, sporting directors, technical directors, whatever you want to call them, are the ones in the background. 

You don't hear from them ever. You don't see them. You hear their names. You know the ones at Brentford and Brighton and teams like that. We see Berrada and Wilcox all the time. 

The disgruntlement among the fans is very much towards the football department: Ratcliffe, INEOS, the Glazers, Wilcox and Berrada. 

That's not going to change with the appointment of a new manager. There are failings there that are deeply rooted and, in my opinion, need to be outed and let the club move in a new direction. It doesn't look like that's going to happen. 

It looks like Berrada and Wilcox will be staying put for the time being. But on how it's been handled, I think it's been terrible. 

Carrick's not a silly man, by absolutely no means. He would have known at the start of this week, as everyone has, that he was going to lose his job. 

It was just a matter of time. To make him go in and carry on. I understand that in employment you have to continue until you're told otherwise. There's no way he could have not gone in to Carrington on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

But the way it's happened is really disappointing from a lot of people's views. It's always difficult to predict what will happen in management in general, let alone at Man United, who have had difficulties in that area. 

But I think what's interesting is how this develops, not just in the coming days, but in the coming hours. The last line of the statement from Man United is that the club intends to appoint a permanent successor as quickly as possible.