Michael Carrick Demands More Signings for Manchester United
Michael Carrick is not pretending everything is done.
As Manchester United edge towards the final weeks of the summer window, their head coach has made it clear the club cannot stop at Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans and Karl Darlow.
“We want more, we need more,” he told Sky Sports News. The message was blunt. The work is not finished.
Carrick wants more than a tidy window
This is Carrick’s first full summer in charge at Old Trafford. The rebuild has started in midfield, where United moved quickly after Casemiro’s departure. Santos and Tielemans arrived for a combined £85m, the club also picking up Darlow on a free from Leeds to back up new No 1 Senne Lammens.
United have also brought in youngsters Tynan Thompson, Kit Margetson and Cristian Orozco. They are signings for tomorrow, not today, unlikely to trouble the first-team picture in the short term.
The focus, though, has been the heart of the pitch and the goalkeeping department. Two problem areas addressed, but not solved to the satisfaction of an increasingly restless fanbase.
Carrick’s assessment of the window so far was positive, but laced with urgency.
“We’re delighted with the players we’ve brought in, first and foremost,” he said. “We’ve improved the group. We’ve improved the squad in different ways. Balance, quality and the direction we want to go in.
“The players that we’ve brought in, I think we’ve done really good business and we’ve got some top, top, top players. So we’re delighted with that. We always want to improve.
“We keep looking forward to how we can do that. So that never stops. We’re conscious of that and we’ve got to keep pushing.”
United know the deadline: September 1. Carrick is pushing to make sure it does not arrive with the squad still short.
Rashford back, and under a different spotlight
Amid the transfers, one of the most intriguing developments has come from within. Marcus Rashford is back.
The England forward spent last season on loan at Barcelona, who chose not to trigger their £26m option to buy. That decision has dropped Rashford straight back into Carrick’s plans for pre-season.
If all goes to schedule, he could pull on a United shirt for the first time since December 2024 this weekend in a friendly against AC Milan, now coached by Ruben Amorim. Rashford previously fell out with Amorim before his first loan move away to Aston Villa, adding an extra edge to the reunion.
Carrick, a former team-mate of Rashford, has been keen to strip away the drama and treat his return as a football decision.
“We’re really calm about bringing Rashford back in,” he said. “We just treat it like anybody else coming into the group.
“There’s obviously this slight twist that he knows the club as well as anybody and that’s a real positive. He’s been here all his career, all his life before the last eight months or so to understand what it means. So that side of things is natural. That’s a given.
“I know we’ve got history, but I’ve got history with a number of other players as well, so that doesn’t make that a unique situation at all. We treat him exactly like any other player, and bring him into the group and carry on as normal.
“He brings a group of things that we haven’t got and we want to get that balance with every individual player and Marcus has come back. He’s in good form and he’s been good to have around this week.”
Rashford’s presence does more than add a familiar face. It shifts the club’s thinking in the market.
Left-back hunt, midfield question – and the Rashford effect
United’s shopping list for the rest of the window is clear: a left-back, and possibly a third central midfielder. A centre-forward? That now looks unlikely.
Rashford’s return is viewed internally as a solution up front for Carrick, easing the immediate need to go into the market for another striker.
On the left side of defence, the search has already hit resistance. United explored a move for Lewis Hall but were told by Newcastle that the defender is not for sale. Attention has also turned to Fulham’s Antonee Robinson, who fits the profile of the attacking left-back they want.
Harry Amass has featured in pre-season, hinting at a pathway, but he is expected to leave before the end of the window, underlining the need for a senior option.
In midfield, United’s long-standing admiration for Arsenal youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly remains. His versatility is a major attraction: he can operate at left-back as well as in the centre of the pitch, theoretically ticking off two areas of need in one move. Whether United actually test Arsenal’s resolve in this window is still unclear.
Inside the club, there is acceptance that the window might close without a third central midfielder arriving. Tielemans and Santos have already come through the door, and the budget and priorities may force a decision: strengthen at left-back and trust what they have in midfield, or push for one more body in the middle and risk going light in defence.
Carrick has made his stance clear. He likes what he has. He just wants more of it.
The question now is whether United’s recruitment team can match that ambition before the clock runs down on September 1.
