Benjamin Sesko scored late in a tie that ended with teenage substitute Shea Lacey being sent off for two bookable offences as United saw their hopes of silverware go up in smoke just 11 days into 2026 having also fallen at the first hurdle in the Carabao Cup.<\/p>\n
It means whoever is appointed interim boss out of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Michael Carrick will only have Premier League matters to attend to, with Fletcher stressing the need to seal Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n
Fletcher will report to Carrington on Monday morning to find out more about the future as United finalise their plans for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve had zero indication,” the Under-18s coach said. “It\u2019s a massive responsibility to lead this club, and I\u2019ve given it my best.<\/p>\n
“Ultimately I\u2019m disappointed to not be able to win a game or to get a result (against Brighton), but I feel like there were some good things in there, created a lot of chances, shots, things like that, but, ultimately it wasn\u2019t enough.”<\/p>\n
The cup exit is expected to be his final game in charge, but insists the Red Devils can realistically challenge for a Champions League place.<\/p>\n
![\"Bruno](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0023b972-614.jpg\"\/)
\nIt was another afternoon to forget for Bruno Fernandes and the Red Devils<\/p>\n
They face Manchester City this weekend in Saturday\u2019s early kick-off, seventh in the table and three points adrift of fourth-place Liverpool.<\/p>\n
there\u2019s still a lot to play for this season and I think if I look at the players \u2013 and we get players back from injury and AFCON and we get a fuller squad \u2013 they have got the ability to qualify in the Champions League place.<\/p>\n
“That should be their objective, that should be their mindset, but they\u2019re going to have to come together and be part of that as well. It\u2019s not about a manager, it\u2019s not about directors.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s about everyone and the players have to group together, take responsibility, find a way of improving quickly and taking on the challenge for the rest of the season. Don\u2019t waste the season.”<\/p>\n
Fletcher admitted the club are “not in a great moment” when it was put to him United look like a mess, although they are seventh in the Premier League and within three points of fourth.<\/p>\n
Asked if this group are in a better place to qualify for the Champions League than when they spiralled after an early Champions League exit in 2021-22, he said: “Yes, I do. I think they are.<\/p>\n
“That was a very strange season. There were a lot of players out of contract and there was a lot of different dynamics.<\/p>\n
“It was difficult when we went out in the Champions League. There was a massive drop off. You could see that, that was visible for everyone to see.<\/p>\n
“But that also let us know the true characters of the players, so actually for a disappointing season, although the end of the season looked terrible, true character reveals itself in difficult times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caretaker boss Darren Fletcher says he has been given no indication over his Manchester United future as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-240312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}