Manchester United Eye Antonio Conte as Potential Replacement for Carrick
Manchester United have sounded out Antonio Conte as a leading candidate to replace Michael Carrick, according to reports in Italy – but the message from inside Old Trafford is very different.
Carrick, confirmed as permanent manager at the end of last season after steering United into the Champions League for 2026/27, has endured a flat start to the new Premier League campaign. Four games, four points. For a club that spent the summer talking about progress, the table already makes uncomfortable reading.
He first took the reins as interim boss in January 2026, stabilising a drifting side and doing enough to convince the hierarchy to hand him the job full-time. Now, less than a year on, his position is already being tested by results and by rumblings from abroad.
Conte at the top of the list
In Italy, the story is clear. September 15’s print edition of Corriere della Sera claims United’s co-owners, INEOS, have identified Conte as their preferred option should they decide to move on from Carrick.
Conte is available. The 57-year-old left Napoli at the end of last season after winning Serie A in 2025, adding yet another title to a formidable domestic record. He has been waiting, deliberately, for what he considers the right project.
Corriere della Sera, echoed by SportWitness and CalcioMercato, report that United view him as the standout name on a shortlist of potential successors. No talks are detailed, no agreement suggested – but the interest is painted as serious and long-standing.
The attraction is obvious. Conte is one of the most decorated coaches of his generation, with 10 major trophies to his name. He built a dynasty at Juventus, winning Serie A in 2012, 2013 and 2014. He returned Inter Milan to the summit with the Scudetto in 2021. He then repeated the trick at Napoli.
In England, he took Chelsea to the Premier League title in 2016/17, reshaping the league’s tactical landscape with his switch to a back three and a ferocious, high-intensity style. Wherever he goes, standards spike, dressing rooms jolt awake, and titles usually follow.
Little wonder his name hovers over any big club in trouble.
INEOS hold the line on Carrick
Yet the noise from Italy clashes with the stance being briefed closer to home.
Transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano insists INEOS are not preparing the trapdoor for Carrick. Speaking on his YouTube channel, he outlined a very different picture: a club still firmly behind their manager despite the stuttering league form.
“Man Utd absolutely remain convinced that the future will be bright under Michael Carrick,” Romano said, stressing that the ownership group retain “total faith and confidence” in the 42-year-old.
The summer window is part of the internal justification. Romano explained that United wanted one more signing – a left-back – but refused to compromise on quality.
“They tried. It was not possible to proceed with the right options,” he said. The club did not want to sign “just to say: ‘OK, we signed one.’ They wanted to be convinced about the player they were going to sign, and so that’s why nothing happened.”
Results, though, are harder to spin. Four points from four Premier League matches is a blunt statistic. It jars against the optimism that followed last season’s late surge into the top four and the return to the Champions League.
Romano accepts the mood around the league form is “disappointing in terms of results”, but insists that belief in Carrick has not wavered inside the club. That includes the manager himself.
Carrick, he says, is delivering the same message in private as he does in front of the cameras: that this team “can do very well in the next weeks and months, especially after the break”.
He remains, in Romano’s words, “absolutely convinced” of the group’s potential.
A name in the background, a manager under scrutiny
So the situation splits into two clear strands.
On one side, a restless European giant with a slow start and an elite, title-winning coach like Conte sitting on the market, his CV heavy with silverware and his name now linked publicly with Old Trafford.
On the other, an ownership group insisting they are not ready to pull the trigger on Carrick, a manager who has already delivered Champions League qualification and who believes the season will swing once his team settles.
For now, INEOS say they are staying the course. Conte waits. The Premier League fixtures keep coming.
If the points do not, how long does that conviction really hold?
