So the lengthy review of last season ended up with Boro opting to part company with Michael Carrick and they now must find and appoint a successor.
The club statement was brief...
Michael's assistants Jonathan Woodgate and Graeme Carrick have also departed the club.
We'd like to thank Michael, Jonathan, and Graeme for all their hard work and unwavering commitment. We wish them all the very best for the future.
The club will be making no further comment at this stage.
Anyway, I Thought I'd start a new topic since we're are on to page 8 on the 'season review' thread - note I'll move all the relevant comments over too...
Carrick Carrick and Woodgate all gone reported on BBC NEWS
OFB
Yes just seen it on the BBC - so it wasn't just a rumour!
Well that will make the summer a whole new proposition and probably a much bigger reshuffle than anticipated.
I wonder who the favourites to replace Carrick are - from previous rumours then maybe Steve Cooper or Gary O'Neil - hopefully not Sean Dyche...
Keiron Scott's best mate, Rob Edwards, is available isn't he?
Steve Cooper favourite on the grapevine !
OFB
Not sure he would be an improvement on Carrick? I've no idea who will get the job though I guess they've got someone lined up after such a lengthy review!
Club Statement was brief which may mean another one with an appointment announcement will be the next one...
https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/2025/june/04/club-statement--michael-carrick/
...and there you have it.Strong rumours on posts that Carrick has been sacked !
I stress it’s a rumour but we’re going to find out tomorrow if it’s true or not !
supposedly has been leaked by a player !
DONT SHOOT THE MESSENGER !
Is Neil Warnock free?
Warnock doesn't appear to be one of the favourites according to the bookies 😉
Gary O’Neil 3/1
Steve Cooper 4/1
Sean Dyche 5/1
Rob Edwards 13/2
Steven Gerrard 8/1
Danny Rohl 10/1
Richie Wellens 12/1
Nigel Pearson 14/1
Don't know how Steven Gerrard got on there but we should be grateful Wayne Rooney isn't!
@werdermouth Rohl is the only one on that list that I'd have any interest in.
Danny Rohl anyone 🤔.
Come on BORO.
Well since we have a German England manager, we may as well have a fellow German Boro manager too 😉
He is perhaps conspicuous by his inclusion on that list of the usual suspects so maybe something in it...
Although Neil has retired many times he’s always free !!
Whoever is appointed is another gamble. Obviously no one can be nailed on to be a success which I suggest is a top 6 finish.
So, it’s now speculation time plus the rumours of new players the new manager will bring. The main thing I ask is for the new person to have a plan B of playing, or even a plan C, when games are not going to plan ,together with making earlier decisions on substitutes.
I am sure the Boro supporters will get behind whoever is chosen and will be given longer than Carrick would have been given , if the team doesn’t get off to a good start.
So who are the possible “ runners and riders” ?
Who is the person we would like to see appointed given an ideal world ? My stand out choice would be be the Liverpool manager !!
Failing that , I’d be more than happy with the former Huddersfield manager who went to WBA and then back to his native country ( Spain? ) where he achieved the second highest number of of points in the division from the time he was appointed. No, this isn’t a quiz !! Can’t remember his name.
Philip of Huddersfield 🤔🤔🤔
I am absolutely gobsmacked. Stunned, even. With the season having ended yonks ago, I assumed Boro were just going to give MC another chance. I know it was actually only a month ago, but it does feel a bit late, unless they already have someone lined up? If not, then recruitment is going to be a lot more of a challenge.
Not Gary o’Neil, please. Please. He seemed to fall out big style with his players in his latter days at Wolves. I don’t rate him. And not Sean Dyche, even though he’d make us competitive, because the football would be industrial, prehistoric and tedious. I would have gone for Rob Edwards, but he now has two successive relegations on his CV. Stevie G would be interesting.
@andy-r. Looking at the website last night where the rumour (or should I say confirmation) started, Rob Edwards was mentioned.
If I remember correctly, I think MFC looked at him at the same time as Carrick.
Consensus last night on the said website.
Rob Edwards. NOOOOOOOO
Gibson has just done the easy bit.
Now comes the hard bit. Not helped by probably big player changeover, as I believe Carrick was popular with the players.
Also I don't think the ST sales will have helped Carrick is the decision.
Yes!! Jürgen Klopp! The perfect appointment!
I do not think we are any better next season. But perhaps the following season? I hope so.
My wish list for a new manager is short. Bring back Mowbray or Southgate. Simple.
Anyway, I hope the next manager will be playing in a similar way as Carrick did. We cannot wait for two to three transfer windows to change the personnel. So we will probably miss a season again with too many changes.
I really do not understand how the football clubs are run. I hope Gibson has someone already in mind. Up the Boro!
btw Danny Rohl just missed out on becoming the new Werder Bremen manager so he probably has top tier options after turning down Southampton who have parachute payments!
Southgate is a good shout. I can’t see him coming back, though.
- @philip-of-huddersfield. Corberan to Valencia
Strong rumours on posts that Carrick has been sacked !
I stress it’s a rumour but we’re going to find out tomorrow if it’s true or not !
supposedly has been leaked by a player !
DONT SHOOT THE MESSENGER !
Woke up in South Dakota to breaking news, Nostradamus OFB strikes again
I'm using today's news to somewhat shamelessly repost an entry I wrote back in February. The second and second to last paragraphs didn't stand up too well but I'm happy with the rest of it....
I’m with Len that sacking Carrick would be a big mistake but I do feel that his time might be up unfortunately. Once the fans turn against a manager there is no lasting way back with any and all defeats (or even failures to win) jumped upon as further evidence that the manager is not up to it. Diasboro is a good barometer of fan opinion because we’re generally a more patient and understanding bunch – if a few have turned here then the majority have elsewhere.
I think the Gazette’s recent stories that Boro have looked at it and have decided to retain him are nonsense – I don’t think the Boro hierarchy have considered sacking him for a second – but it’s likely to be a news story fed to the press to try and say to fans that the club hierarchy understand their frustration but want to draw a line under it. I simply don’t believe that the club are interested in paying a presumably large amount of compensation for a man who has made them millions in player development.
Finances aside, should he be sacked though?
Throughout most of his time with us, Carrick’s Boro have been a curious, equal-parts mix of fluid, front-foot fun and catastrophic, error-strewn calamity, with the kind of “soft underbelly” that can leave you uneasy with even a three goal lead so long as there’s time left on the clock to hand it back. Little seems beyond this group at either end of the pitch except, of course, consistency - even within the course of ninety minutes, nevermind game to game.
Carrick has increasingly taken the blame for the issues but tactics/philosophy/playing style - whichever you prefer - is surely only one ingredient in the cocktail.
There should be no question that Boro have lacked leadership, game management and a dose of the dark arts on the field this season. It is surely no coincidence that Boro’s four most prominent leaders - Howson, Lenihan, Ayling and Smith - have all missed large parts or all of the season (or even retired).
There should also be no question that if your transfer policy is skewed towards signing youngsters with potential then you’ll get a squad that is in large parts learning on the job and by nature naive - two pillars of inconsistency and frustrating flakiness.
Boro’s strategy is what it is for good reason as we battle to compete, sustainably and within the rules, against clubs with greater available funds. However, we should acknowledge that it is also one that prioritises possible value tomorrow over points today, the irony being that a single promotion to the Premier League is worth up to seven Latte Laths at once.
And what is the thinking behind a January rebuild such as we had this year? A feature of Carrick’s time at the club has been a large turnover of players in the summer, followed by a prolonged period of acclimatisation. What made anyone think it would be any different in January?
Carrick will be frustrated too. He will feel that, given the tools and the time, he can deliver a promotion winning team as he so nearly did in his first season at the club, despite it being only a three-quarter one following an awful start. That squad was more street-smart and ruthless with the slightly younger and most definitely fitter Howson, Lenihan and Smith as regulars alongside the guile of Akpom to coach and coerce the enthusiastic zest of the young attacking players around them. Solid pros like Crooks, Mowatt and Watmore were available from the bench for a period when further know-how was needed.
This year’s squad is different and, in truth, has been almost a deception. It is a larger group for sure with options across every position but ask yourself how many of the names would have broken into in Boro’s last promotion winning side under Aitor Karanka? How many would even get into Carrick’s XI from that first season? For me, this year’s squad has some promise for the future by design but for today it’s weighted more towards quantity than quality.
Despite all the above, it might still be reasonable to consider a finish anywhere below the playoff places as an underperformance. Carrick cannot be blameless for his porous defence or the player turnover and, though his squad may be missing some key ingredients, so does almost every other Championship squad. There are surely no more than one or two rival squads - three at a push - that are obviously stronger on paper.
That should trouble the Boro hierarchy and therefore pose the question of whether another management team would get more from the available resources. A possible response would be how many quality managers would be willing to work within an operating model that does not prioritise immediate results? Certainly not Carrick’s immediate predecessors, as we know.
Perhaps a better question is, are we getting the recruitment balance right? Are we improving the squad enough for now as well as having an eye on a profit in future? The Brightons and the Brentfords did that and, with respect to Chris Hughton and Dean Smith, didn’t need world class managers to make it stick.
Maybe then, the manager IS capable and the strategy IS broadly right but it’s the execution that requires some refinement.
I’ll say it again, when it comes to Carrick’s position, remember that he has made the club a small fortune in developing the likes of Morgan Rogers and Latte Lath into eight-figure value players. You’d imagine that Gibson, and particularly Scott, quite like that.
The question is therefore not should Gibson and Scott sack Carrick, but rather can they keep the fans onside with him?
It’s still brilliant, Andy!
Remember Gary o Neill feigned injury not to play a game for Boro but still played golf ?
Remember also how his wife was quoted as hating the area ?
Dont think he would be a considered candidate do you Diasborians ?
OFB
Think we need a foreign manager like Sunderland did and look what happened ??
or Johnny Howson ????
OFB
That was a much quicker review than Boro managed and probably reached the same conclusion! Perhaps Carrick was uncomfortable with a model that scuppered his season in successive January windows? His agent certainly wouldn't have let him walk though but perhaps an honest discussion with Steve Gibson may have made it clear that another season like the last two wasn't going to be a good for his career!
Boro need a manager who can adapt his tactics based on what players he has available and how a particular game is unfolding. Carrick rarely showed he had the flexibility to adjust to circumstances and he was even less effective and knowing when to make subs or indeed seeing games out.
I don’t think MC will be out of a job for too long. I just hope our new manager gets to manage in the EPL (assuming that’s the aim) before MC does, but I wouldn’t bet on it.