Paul Pogba Endorses Michael Carrick as Manchester United's New Leader
The smiles have returned to Old Trafford, and Paul Pogba is watching it happen with approval.
Manchester United’s decision to hand Michael Carrick the reins on a permanent basis has drawn praise from one of the club’s most mercurial modern midfielders, who believes his former team-mate is the right man to lead a genuine revival.
From uncertainty to control
The 2025/26 campaign did not begin like this. United lurched through the opening months under Ruben Amorim, drifting between ideas, struggling for rhythm, and slipping away from the Premier League’s front runners. Performances stuttered, the mood darkened, and the familiar questions about direction and identity resurfaced.
Then came the reset.
Amorim’s dismissal at the turn of the year opened the door for Carrick, initially as a stopgap. On paper, it was a cautious move: a club legend trusted to steady the ship while the hierarchy surveyed the market and insisted they would not rush into a permanent appointment.
On the pitch, it felt anything but cautious.
Carrick’s United went on a surge. Across 17 Premier League games, they collected 12 wins, three draws and only two defeats. The numbers told one story; the football told another. United stepped higher, pressed with intent, and attacked with a clarity and purpose that had been missing. The front-foot approach connected with the stands and the dressing room alike.
Champions League football, absent for two seasons, was secured with a third-place finish. More important than the table, though, was the sense that United finally had a blueprint again.
The job, in truth, became Carrick’s to lose. Last month, the club removed any doubt and confirmed what the performances had already suggested: the interim was now the man in charge.
Pogba’s seal of approval
From afar, Pogba has been watching a familiar figure reshape the club he once lit up in flashes across 233 appearances.
Speaking to Sky Sports, the Frenchman did not bother with diplomacy. He backed Carrick outright.
“I think he’s doing a great job and he did it also at the time when he was the assistant of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer,” Pogba said, pointing to a continuity of influence that predates this latest run of results.
“He’s a great guy, he has experience, he was a great player, and he has a very good connection with the players, you could see it when he took the team.”
That connection has been visible in United’s renewed energy. Players who looked inhibited earlier in the season now play with greater freedom, the ball moving quicker, the attacks carrying more conviction. Carrick, once the quiet metronome in midfield, now sets the tempo from the touchline.
“I think it’s going to be good for United,” Pogba added. “I wish them the best, obviously, for him and all the staff and the players.”
A different kind of rebuild
This is not the first time United have tried to reboot the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era. Managers have come with big reputations, big ideas, and bigger budgets. Each time, the project has eventually stalled.
Carrick’s rise feels different precisely because it grew from within the season, not from a summer reset. He inherited a faltering side midstream and changed its direction without the benefit of a transfer window or a full pre-season. That buys credibility in any dressing room.
Now comes the hard part.
A strong summer window could turn promise into something more substantial. The style is emerging, the optimism is real, and the Champions League is back on the calendar. The foundations, at last, look stable.
Carrick has earned his chance. Pogba’s verdict simply echoes what many at Old Trafford already sense: this is no longer a club searching for a manager to define it.
It is a club daring to believe that, with Carrick, it may finally have found one.
