Michael Carrick's Former Teammates Ready to Join Him at Manchester United
Michael Carrick will never be short of familiar faces if he ever reaches for the phone at Manchester United.
Across continents and career paths, some of his most decorated former team-mates are effectively on standby. Not for a reunion dinner or a charity match – but to roll up their sleeves and work alongside him at Old Trafford.
Silvestre ready for a return – on his terms
Mikael Silvestre is one of them. The Frenchman spent nine years at United, winning everything there was to win and sharing a dressing room with Carrick in his final two seasons at the club.
He walked away from playing in 2014 and made a deliberate decision: no tracksuit, no dugout. Coaching wasn’t the calling. The boardroom was.
Silvestre moved into an executive path, taking the Director of Football role at Rennes, the club where his professional story began, before most recently performing the same job at Romanian side CFR Cluj. That experience, he admits, is exactly what he’d be prepared to bring back to Manchester – if the circumstances were right.
“I’d prefer the Director of Football role which I did at Rennes after I completed my Masters in sports management,” he told Grosvenor Sport, underlining that his badges may be in place but his ambition lies away from the touchline.
Silvestre is realistic, too. United’s football structure has been reshaped, with Jason Wilcox stepping up into the Director of Football position following Dan Ashworth’s departure. It leaves little obvious room for a returning old boy, however strong the emotional pull.
“I don’t know because I believe his coaching team is already full,” Silvestre said when asked whether former players might come back to work under Carrick. “It’s a department that has everyone it needs so I don’t see anybody coming in from the outside to offer something extra.”
Yet the connection remains. Silvestre still studies United closely, planning a visit in September to watch training, and he doesn’t hide where his loyalties sit.
“I will go and watch United in September and observe training but like all former players I look out for all my clubs, although I look out for United more specifically than others. I played for them for nine years, after all.”
Rooney’s “no-brainer” stance
Silvestre is not alone. Wayne Rooney, the club’s all-time leading scorer, has already nailed his colours to the mast.
After a turbulent spell in charge of Plymouth Argyle in 2024, Rooney has stepped away from the dugout and into punditry. Yet one job, and one job only, would tempt him back into the daily grind at a club.
Manchester United. Under Michael Carrick.
Speaking in January, Rooney left no room for doubt.
“Of course I would. It’s a no-brainer,” he said when asked if he’d join Carrick at United. “I’m not begging a job here by the way. Just so everyone knows, if I was asked to go in of course I would. Appointing the manager is the most important thing.”
The message was clear: this isn’t a man touting his CV. It’s a club legend openly stating that, if Carrick ever called, he’d answer.
Valencia would “go running”
On another continent, another former captain feels exactly the same.
Antonio Valencia shared nine seasons in the United dressing room with Carrick, evolving from winger to full-back and eventually wearing the armband. Now 40 and working for Telemundo Deportes on World Cup coverage, he remains emotionally anchored to Old Trafford.
Asked by Hajper whether he would go back, Valencia didn’t hesitate.
“Yes, I would go back. Manchester United is a club that gave me so much,” he said. “My family was very happy there. I would work for Manchester United in any role, out of passion. It is a club I love a lot. I think everything they are doing is going well. But if they called me, I would go running.”
Any role. Any responsibility. The specifics don’t matter to him. The badge does.
Carrick’s quiet power base
For now, Carrick’s staff is settled, the structure around him defined. Silvestre sees no obvious gap to fill. Rooney is on television, Valencia behind a microphone, Wilcox in the director’s chair.
Yet the subtext is powerful.
United’s current manager has built such respect among his former peers that some of the club’s most recognisable figures are willing to reshape their own careers just to stand alongside him. An ex-defender ready to swap foreign boardrooms for Old Trafford’s corridors. A record goalscorer prepared to leave the studio. A former captain who would “go running” for any job on offer.
If Carrick ever chooses to tap into that reservoir of loyalty, he won’t be short of volunteers.
