Michael Carrick has made his first major decision as Manchester United’sinterim manager by insisting Harry Maguire remains at the club.
The Red Devils are reported to have received several offers for the experienced international already over the course of the January transfer window.
Maguire joined United seven years ago in an £80million deal and featured during Carrick’s first interim spell the helm.
The 32-year-old’s contract expires in the summer and although he had been hopeful of earning a new deal, it appears likely he will bring the curtain down on his Old Trafford career in the summer.
Inter are already understood, according to The Sun, to have registered an interest, while several Premier League clubs are monitoring his situation.
Get personalised updates on Manchester United every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link so we can send you football news tailored to you.
For now, however, Carrick is adamant that Maguire will remain part of his plans until the end of the season and will refuse to sanction his departure before the window slams shut.
Maguire made his return to action as a late substitute in last weekend’s FA Cup defeat against Brighton having been out since early November with a hamstring injury.
Carrick is likely to restore the experienced centre-half to his starting XI at the earliest opportunity, especially givenhis likely to decision to discard the 3-4-3 formation that failed to deliver results during Ruben Amorin’s disastrous tenure.
Carrick, meanwhile, insists there is still ‘magic around’ Manchester United as the new head coach dismissed the suggestion he has returned to a soulless club stuck in the mud.
The former Red Devils captain was put in charge for the remainder of the season on Tuesday after Darren Fletcher had initially stepped in as caretaker following the end of Ruben Amorim’s 14-month reign.
Carrick returns to a club he spent 15 years with as player and then coach, making 464 appearances before transitioning into a staff role that ended with him walking away in December 2021 after an undefeated three-match spell as caretaker boss.
There have been plenty of lows, along with the odd high, in the four years he was away from Old Trafford, leading to a growing sense of disquiet within the fanbase and a feeling that the club has not progressed and even become soulless.
‘I certainly don’t think it’s soulless,’ Carrick said. ‘I think there’s a magic around this place. I feel it. I feel at home straightaway, coming into the building, coming in and around it.
‘I’ve obviously been around it for quite some time and then missed a little window, but I think there’s a magic around this place. You can’t help but feel that.
‘Yeah, results and sometimes from the outside things look a little bit different but it certainly doesn’t feel majorly different on the inside, I have to say that.
‘Listen, part of my role and responsibility is shaping what we want to look like going forward as a group.
‘What happens on the pitch, the tactical side and the performances is one thing but certainly the culture as well and how we think, how we act, how we behave, what it means to us to be here.
‘That’s something that is part of my responsibility to spread in the right way.’
