{"id":816525,"date":"2026-10-28T13:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/816525\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T13:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:42:09","slug":"manchester-united-michael-carrick-and-bruno-fernandes-hold-clear-the-air-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/816525\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United: Michael Carrick and Bruno Fernandes hold clear-the-air talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick and captain Bruno Fernandes have held clear-the-air talks before the team’s trip to Chelsea.<\/p>\n

Fernandes, 32, was an unused substitute<\/a> during United’s 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese was dropped to the bench after he criticised Carrick’s tactics<\/a> following the 4-1 loss against Como in the Champions League.<\/p>\n

Sources have told BBC Sport that the pair spoke privately at the club’s training ground on Tuesday, with the talks aimed at airing issues.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether Fernandes, who was made club captain in 2023, apologised for his critical comments.<\/p>\n

United are preparing for Saturday’s trip to Chelsea (12:30 GMT), when Fernandes could return to the starting line-up.<\/p>\n

Carrick was widely expected to be sacked following the Bournemouth game, but he will take charge of the Premier League match at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n

United’s board decided the 45-year-old deserved the opportunity to turn things around at Old Trafford<\/a>, despite the team languishing in 16th place in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

There was further good news for Carrick on Wednesday, with midfielder Kobbie Mainoo returning to training after a fortnight out through injury.<\/p>\n

Despite managing just one victory in eight Premier League matches this term, the predicament at the club is not seen as being entirely Carrick’s fault by the board.<\/p>\n

Senior figures at the club feel United’s players – a squad they think are capable of qualifying for the Champions League – are underperforming badly and should shoulder some blame.<\/p>\n

One player told BBC Sport: “The feeling is that we all want to put it right. Players, staff, everyone.”<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, sources have told BBC Sport that the club have shortlisted former Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe and ex-Germany and Bayern Munich head coach Julian Nagelsmann as potential replacements for Carrick.<\/p>\n

Any decision to appoint Howe would trigger a multi-million-pound compensation claim from his former club Newcastle, while Nagelsmann is a free agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick and captain Bruno Fernandes have held clear-the-air talks before the team’s trip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-816525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}