Every word of Michael Carrick’s Man City pre-match press conference

Michael Carrick says Roy Keane’s personal comments about his appointment do not bother him.

Carrick was attending his first press conference in his current interim role as Manchester United manager as he answered questions relating to tomorrow’s Premier League match with Manchester City at Old Trafford.

The first question was “How have you found your first few days then as a Manchester United head coach, and how does it feel to be sat in that chair today?”

“Very two different roles sat in this chair and in front of you;” he joked. “It’s very different, the role in coaching. Yeah, listen, it’s fantastic to be here. It’s a great feeling for me to be in this position. I think I played different roles for this club and learned to fall in love with the club for so long. It’s a massive part of my life and has been for so long. So I’m fully aware of the position I’m in in so many different ways.”

“As well as that, I’m eager to succeed. We’ve got a big job to do. It’s an important job and it always is here to win games and to play well and to do it in a certain way. So there’s one side of it is nice to be here, but the other side of it is focus, concentration, and a real drive to improve the team and improve the results.”

Carrick was asked “What does success look like then? Is it Champions League qualification? Is that what success will be?”

He answered: “Yeah, I think improvement. I think certainly improvement, helping improve individuals. I think a big part of what I really enjoy is improving individuals. And in the end, I think if you improve the individuals, we create a better team.”

“So certainly working with the players and improving them with that. I think, yeah, listen, results. That’s what it is. There’s an element of performance, there’s an element of what it takes to win in certain ways, in certain occasions. So certainly higher up the league, we finish, we want to keep pushing and finishing as high as we possibly can. We’ll see where that takes us. That’s it.”

He was asked whether the leadership team had set any targets.

“No, not in terms of it has to be this way or that way,” he answered. “Like I said, we want to be near the top. We want to be top of the league. I mean, that’s pretty obvious to say, but we got to take some small steps towards that. And European football, obviously, would be a step forward, and we’ve got to keep pushing.”

The next question was “what conversations have you had with the likes of Jason and Omar [Berrada]? I understand some of the Glazer family might have been there yesterday, also Jim [Ratcliffe]. So what have those conversations been like?”

“I’ve spoke to Jason an awful lot and I’m working closely with Jason and Omar as well;” he said. “Over the last few days, we’ve spoken a lot, as you’d imagine. The ownership group were in and around it. It was nice to see them and meet them yesterday and have a small chat with them. They were taking care of business in some ways. We were able to share a few things. So I wish this all the very best and it was good to see them.”

Finally he was asked: “Michael, I was going to mention to you when Ruben Amorim left, one of the things that he said in his last press conference was mentioning about Gary Neville and the players, and clearly, Roy Keane has immediately waded in. I know there’s a personal element to that as well. So it’s difficult. But in general, how do you feel about knowing that all these famous Manchester United people are going to put more pressure on you, basically?”

Carrick replied: “They’re not putting more pressure on me. I don’t feel that. I think it’s just part of it. The role, I understand it. I understand there’s plenty of opinions around and some are positive, some not so much. But I think in some ways for me, in terms of you saying about putting pressure, for me, it’s totally irrelevant in terms of me and how I go to work and what I focus on.”

“I know already what we want to improve on and how we want to work with the players. I’ve already said about improving things. There’s a lot of opinions, a lot can be said. It is the way of the world. I’m not going to pay too much attention to the most of that. I think it’s not for me to do that. I think for me and the players and the staff, it’s a focus on how we’re going to succeed, really. That’s our job, that’s our responsibility. That’s where our focus and our mind should be at, is doing what we can for this club.”

“But that, in particular, was quite personal;” the reporter insisted.

“Honestly, it didn’t bother me. It didn’t bother me,” Carrick replied.

The embargoed section of the presser will be released tonight at 10.30pm. Find every word here at The Peoples Person.

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