How Michael Carrick found out about Man Utd sacking as real reason for INEOS 'delay' emerges

Michael Carrick was told of his Manchester United sacking by chief executive Omar Berrada on Thursday morning, it has been reported - with the Moroccan said to have wanted to deliver the news personally.

United announced the sacking of Carrick at around 10.30am on Thursday, confirming that the club intended to appoint a permanent successor 'as quickly as possible'. Mauricio Pochettino is set to take over at Old Trafford and leave his role as head coach of the United States men's national team (USMNT) next week.

Videos of Carrick driving away from United's training ground, Carrington, for the last time as head coach emerged on social media and, after a chaotic four days, new details have emerged surrounding the behind-the-scenes detail of his sacking.

How Michael Carrick was sacked by Man Utd

According to The Athletic, it was Berrada who informed Carrick that United would be parting ways with him with immediate effect, with the Moroccan wanting to deliver the news face-to-face. It was arguably the least Carrick deserved, given the significant criticism that followed co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who rarely speaks publicly, hosting a meeting about Carrick's future from his primary residence in Monaco rather than travelling to Manchester.

It is claimed that Ratcliffe was in Monaco because of the biannual INEOS CEO summit, which was held on Tuesday and which the multi-billionaire deemed to be 'inflexible to events' at United; it is said that this ultimately caused a delay in the decision-making over Carrick.

Director of football Jason Wilcox is said to have wanted to see improvements in set pieces. Previous head coach Ruben Amorim was critical of Wilcox before he was ultimately sacked and named the former Blackburn midfielder in a list of people who 'need[ed] to do their jobs' in his final press conference.

The mood in the training ground, meanwhile, was said to be 'muted', with some of those inside anticipating that Carrick would be leaving the club.

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Pochettino will take charge of his final two games in charge of USMNT when they take on Haiti in a two-legged CONCACAF Nations League quarter-final tie before travelling to Manchester ahead of United's crunch trip to Liverpool on November 22.

Reports of United's interest in Pochettino only emerged after Sunday's 4-4 draw with Aston Villa, which proved to be Carrick's last game in charge. Eddie Howe and Julian Nagelsmann had been among the leading candidates to take over; The Athletic reported that Berrada and Wilcox had named Howe as the preferred candidate, but the Glazer family, who remain the club's majority owners, opted to convince Pochettino to make the move instead.

BBC Sport's Simon Stone reported on Thursday that under-21s lead coach, Adam Lawrence, took training on Thursday, which included four first-team players while the remainder are either recovering from injury or on international duty.

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