Manchester United’s Michael Carrick Contract Dilemma
The 34-year-old Manchester United midfielder has yet to receive a contract extension.
There are just seven Premier League games for Manchester United to play this season, and it’s unclear if Michael Carrick will be offered a new contract.
While age has clearly caught up with the midfield maestro, it’s clear for all to see he has plenty to offer still. He’s played more minutes than his direct competitors, barring Morgan Schneiderlin, and according to Squawka his total performance score is, once again, second only to Schneiderlin.
So why is it taking so long for a player who’s clearly important for the side to get an extension? During the Sir Alex Ferguson era, it was normal for a player who was 30 years old and over to only get yearly contracts based on their performances during the season.
It was club policy. And it was a good policy because just as youngsters are inconsistent in the beginning of their careers, veterans are often the same in the twilight of their careers. So there was no knowing whether it was time for the player to hang up his boots or not.
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However, as mentioned before, during the Sir Alex Ferguson era, he often waited until Christmas time to decide whether an ‘oldie’ deserved a new contract or not. It appears for some strange reason this policy hasn’t been applied to Carrick.
While it’s obvious he isn’t putting in the same performances of the last season or the season before that, he still contributes to the team and as long as a player contributes to the team then he should remain in the team.
Even though the Everton game wasn’t his best, losing possession with some sloppy passing (a trait so unlike Carrick), it was still clear for all to see, when we took the short trip to the Etihad, the type of performances we can still get out of the 34-year-old.
Towards the end of Giggs’ career he had to be regularly rotated and often specifically selected for certain games to ensure he was still useful and not a burden. It was hard to tell which Giggs you would get with him being hauled off at half-time a few times due to a poor performance, but when he did shine it was almost always the difference between winning and losing.
That’s what experience and quality can get for you, both of which Carrick has in abundance. There doesn’t seem to be a case against adding a year to Carrick contract. There’s no hard-and-fast rule that if he did get a contract that he would play every game possible. He would just be sat down, as all the veterans did, and told that he would be rotated regularly.
The only possible reasons why he hasn’t been handed a new contract yet is that either Carrick himself plans on moving on or retiring at the end of the season. Or Louis van Gaal prefers Bastian Schweinsteiger over Carrick and wants the German to be the experienced midfielder that other players can rely on come August 2016. Either way, they’re absurd suggestions.
Carrick has easily got another season in him and Schweinsteiger has proven that he’s far too injury prone to be solely relied on (its actually the reason why Bayern Munich sold him). It would currently make more sense to rotate Carrick and Schweinsteiger, allowing them both to influence the team whenever their legs allow them. When one performs poorly, replace him with the other. Replace one composed head with another.
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If it is Carrick’s last season at Manchester United then we should appreciate the man who was once labelled as the best English player around by the master himself, Sir Alex Ferguson. After all, “it’s Carrick, you know, it’s hard to believe it’s not Scholes.”