Why Michael Carrick Deserves A New Man Utd Contract…or A Hero’s Send-off
Raj Bains |
January 18, 2017 |
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On March 2nd 2016, Raj Bains wrote, same again in 2017?
Michael Carrick is a little bit like having internet access, in that, you don’t really appreciate how much you’ve relied on it until it isn’t there anymore. With his future at Manchester United under some doubt—contract talks are reportedly entering their infancy—he’s still a player with a profile about as prominent as a black actor at the Oscars, although some of that may actually be down to choice.
Having been overshadowed on the international stage by the likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry, he’s an advert for just how misguided the rating system applied to footballers used to be, and may be a victim of coming ever so slightly before his time. The way in which he plays: neatly, with his brain, for his team and with a focus on the unselfish, he’s the perfect antithesis to the type of player that’s usually ranted and raved over—the boom and bust career of Gerrard an ideal tool with which to highlight the juxtaposition.
Being sidelined by England didn’t effect his club career though, and may well have helped prolong his effectiveness, if anything. A graduate of the same Wallsend Boys Club in the North East that helped produce the likes of Peter Beardsley, Steve Bruce and Alan Shearer—amongst countless others—he cut his teeth during a five-year period at West Ham, having spent a couple of years prior knocking around their academy system. Their unexpected relegation sparked an exodus of young talent, and Carrick didn’t hang around too much longer either, joining Tottenham in a £3.5 million deal.
It was then under Martin Jol, rather than Jaques Santini—who was in charge at the time of his purchase—that his career really began to take off. Given a prominent role in the middle of the park for a Tottenham side that were playing progressive attacking football, his range of skills were finally on show for all to see. His vision, range of passing and ability to dictate the pace of games without actually ever breaking in to a sprint made him a firm fan favourite, and the way he connected with a football on a technical level drew comparisons with Glenn Hoddle, which Spurs fans are often reluctant to do.
In the years that have passed since Carrick left Tottenham, it says an awful lot about the way in which he was viewed by the fans when they’re pushed to recall the transfers that have effected them most over the past few years—and it isn’t like they’re pushed for choice. Often highlighted in the same breath as Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Dimitar Berbatov, his move away was one of the first that created a selling club reputation around Spurs, especially for the fee that Daniel Levy was able to command for him, which was largely balked at in the immediate aftermath.
That said, around the same time that Carrick started to become a serious talking point at Tottenham, there was a stylistic revolution occurring across the Premier League, with Jose Mourinho and Chelsea introducing the establishment to a more dominant, pragmatic form of the game. Rafa Benitez, having just joined Liverpool from the continent, was another major figure in changing the tone of the league and the football it produced, and Manchester United weren’t about to get left behind by those two. Rather than being over-reliant on athletes across the park, two busy wingers and good strike partnership, tactics started become much more mainstream and prominent, which fed right in to the hands of a technical player like Carrick.
Flexing his financial muscle and looking for a Roy Keane replacement, Sir Alex Ferguson pinched Carrick from Spurs for £18.6 million after just two years, handing him the number 16 shirt and making him the sixth-most expensive player they’d ever bought (at the time).
Despite some early issues with injury, Carrick quickly established himself as Manchester United’s go-to midfielder, and was a virtual ever present when fit. Improving defensively, his role at the club was essentially the same as it was at Tottenham, but more pronounced: win the ball back, look for someone in space, and launch the best attack you can in the least amount of passes. Reading the game like a book, he disrupted defences through blocks and interceptions rather than traditional tackles, and used his superior passing range and vision to turn defence in to attack within a split second with an alarming regularity.
While he lacked the ferocity and incendiary nature that made Keane such an imposing figure in the heart of the United midfield, he brought with him some calm and subtlety, with his complete and utter lack of ego a key attribute in allowing him to happily play a facilitating role for those ahead of him, which provided a platform for the likes of Giggs, Rooney and Ronaldo to operate from with a guaranteed safety net behind them. That selflessness, in fact, is the main reason Carrick was so unlike any of his other England contemporaries.
Lampard, a man who’d regularly score upwards of 20 goals per season, was the focal point of Chelsea’s attack for almost his entire career at the club. Gerrard, despite multiple positional changes over the years, was always keen to thrust himself in to the spotlight at Liverpool, even when it was detrimental to the team around him. Barry, while being the most like Carrick on paper, was still eager enough to get himself forward to score the odd goal, took set pieces at Aston Villa, and defended in a manner that his led him to become one of the all-time leading yellow card recipients in the brief history of the Premier League.
That then, clearly, is why the likes of Barry and Carrick have lasted longer in the top flight than Gerrard and Lampard have, who became much less effective once their athleticism and natural explosively was taken from their legs. That longevity and patience has afforded him many things—including the largest meaningful trophy cabinet of the lot—and that should now extend to his renewal at the club, rather than casting him off down the league for a nominal fee like Manchester United have developed a habit of doing.
The talent that Carrick has, largely based on his game intelligence, isn’t something that’s easily taught, and given Van Gaal’s comments about him being a “trainer coach during the game,” you’d imagine the club would quite like to retain his services. His contemporaries, the likes of Andrea Pirlo, Xavi and Xabi Alonso—rather than the aforementioned English alternatives—have all been able to use their exceptional reading of the game to prolong their effectiveness to varying degrees, limiting and specialising their roles even further, having younger players around them do the running they can no longer do for them.
He may have to be more selective in the matches he plays, but there’s recent precedent available for how useful these figures can be towards the end of their career, and why it’s not always the best option just to let them go and get their wages off the book. Michael Carrick deserves a new contract at Manchester United because of faultless and under-appreciated service he’s afforded the club, and he’s not the type of player you’d want to see shoehorned in to an underperforming second tier side elsewhere in the pursuit of minutes, having to dumb down his game to ensure those around him have a chance of getting on the same wavelength.
If he were a serviceman on his last legs, he’d have earned the type of goodbye that’s drawn out by the side of a large body of water, with a single flame-lit arrow aimed towards the boat that carried him serenely down stream, as everyone onshore watches on in silence with a bowed head. The alternative, a move to a lesser Premier League club or—heaven forbid—a stint in MLS or China, would be like a metal bolt in the back of his head, which is far less dignified than he deserves.
Carrick’s time in the game hasn’t afforded him the level of acclaim and appreciation that he deserves, but there’s no need that that should continue that in to his final days as a player. Let his exit from the game be more dignified and better stage managed than most—much like his playing style—not because it’s what he wants or needs, but has earned.
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