www.espnfc.com/club/manchester-united/360/blog/post/3072602/man-united-going-in-the-right-direction-under-jose-mourinho-michael-carrickMichael Carrick will reunite Manchester United's 2008 Champions League winners for his testimonial game against an All-Star XI at Old Trafford in June, 11 years after arriving at the club in an £18.3 million transfer from Tottenham, with the proceeds going to charity.
Having won his 10th major medal as a United player in the EFL Cup final last Sunday, the 35-year-old Carrick sat down for an exclusive interview with ESPN FC to talk about his decade at Old Trafford, what happens next, securing a clean sweep of honours and what really happened when he and Wayne Rooney held talks with Louis van Gaal last season.
Q: How do you reflect on your time at Manchester United? There have been some tough times as well as big successes?
A: That's football, isn't it? If you look at anyone's career, there are times when you have hard times. Even the best players have to struggle through things. That definitely happened with me, but maybe it's a good thing because, at this club, you can never feel settled. I remember Gary Neville saying that he never felt he had made it, that he was always trying to prove himself and improve himself, but that's the beauty of being at a place like this. If you get into a comfort zone and are too much at home, then it will come back to bite you, so it works both ways really.
Q: Have the last three years, following Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, been different to your early years at the club?
A: Compared to the first seven years, yes, which were incredible in terms of consistency and winning five league titles. But the two that stick in my memory most are the ones that got away. One was by a point, when we lost out to Chelsea in 2010; the other was on goal difference to Manchester City in 2012. But to be so consistent, for so long, was obviously a very special time and the best period for me and the club.
But you can't continue that dominance and consistency forever, especially when players change and evolve. They get older, you change the manager; the last three years have been a transitional time, a bit of an adjustment. But hopefully we will look back in years to come and see the FA Cup last season as the catalyst of a different era starting.
Q: When you were winning titles and never finishing outside the top two, in hindsight, did you take the success for granted?
A: I don't think you take it for granted so much, but our strength was that we expected it to happen. We weren't hoping, we were expecting. That's not being blasé, that's just the standards we have. Some clubs would chase fourth, but our standards, our drive, was such that we had to win. We had the tools in place to do it, but the mentality was 'all or nothing' and that was the case.
Q: Do you sense a return to that attitude under Jose Mourinho?
A: The general feeling is that we are close and not too far away and the manager is a big part of it because of his approach, his mentality. And he has brought in players with big personalities, quality players. There is also the fact that some of the others have now been here for two or three years now, so they have grown as well. I wouldn't say it has come together yet because we haven't achieved anything, but it seems like it is bubbling and things are going in the right direction.
There were stages under Louis (van Gaal) when I thought the base was there to kick on, but we never did it. We would have a good run of results for a few games, then suffer a bad result. We would take a couple of steps back and it was frustrating because we never quite got the run going.
Q: You have won [the EFL Cup] already, are still in the FA Cup and Europa League and are also chasing a top-four finish, so how do you view the picture right now?
A: It feels different now. A couple of months back, we felt quite some way behind, but we have taken confidence from performances and the run we have gone on. The gap has tightened and you can be up to second with two or three points. Yes, we are sixth, but it looks a lot different now when you see the table. There is a different feeling, not just amongst us, but the teams above us.
Q: The Europa League offers Champions League qualification and is the only major trophy you haven't won with United, so is that now the priority?
A: Who knows? It could be my last chance to win something, so let's have a really good run at it. There can't be many players who have won everything, and the Europa League wasn't on the radar for us during most of my time here, but we have a chance this year. There are some good teams in it, but we feel now, as a squad, that we can win things again.
You can go through a time, when we were challenging on all fronts, that you would almost expect a trophy or two at the end of every season. You don't really look past it and wonder when it will stop, but because of my age now, you know that you are not always going to get opportunities to win things. You only get four chances to win a trophy each season. When you have an opportunity, like we have in the cups, they are massive chances.
Q: How difficult is it to be a 35-year-old in a Jose Mourinho team? In the past, players in their mid-30s have rarely played significant roles in his teams.
A: I do try to stay involved in training and keep that routine as much as I can. I just feel I need to do it for myself, not because the manager demands it, but because you get to a stage where you have to manage yourself -- what suits you; what doesn't. I just feel I need to stay in that regular routine. You are not necessarily going full out every day -- some of the young lads fly around at full speed because that's what young lads do -- you manage yourself, pick the days when you work harder than others and it probably just comes from experience.
Q: It took a while for you to break into the team at the start of the season, though, didn't it?
A: It was just how it was and you have to work hard to get into the team, simple as that. Being a bit older, I was probably more patient than I would have been when I was younger and I knew that a chance would come at some stage. You just have to be ready for that chance. It is tough when you don't play for a while and a couple of games go by when, you've worked hard to be ready, but then aren't involved.
You just have to keep going and be ready because, if you don't apply yourself properly during those weeks, it will hit you when the time comes. It is a mental battle more than anything, but being older and more experienced, I was able to deal with it better.
Q: When you weren't in the team, did you regret signing a contract extension last summer?
A: When you get older, you want to be playing. I'm not one who would want to be sitting around as part of the squad, making up the numbers. I am conscious that I want to be playing and making a contribution to the team. But since then, I got into the team and managed to play a few games on the spin, just missing the odd one here and there. I suppose that's how I thought it would play out once I got into the team -- play a few games, have a good run.
Q: Your contract expires in the summer, so if United don't offer a new deal, will you play on elsewhere?
A: I have had so many good times here that I couldn't play anywhere else in England. I must admit I would find it difficult to play anyone else in this country after playing here. I don't think I could do that. I have always wanted to go out at the top, I have felt like that for quite some time now. I want to go out on my terms. That's not me being selfish, I just want don't want to go over the hill and fizzle away. I want to go out when I know it's the right time, but it's a tough balance to get, knowing that that is my lot.
Q: Mourinho claimed it has taken time to change the mindset of the players from the Van Gaal approach to his. Why does it take so long for a squad to adjust to a manager's philosophy?
A: Why do teams play well? Why do they not? You can look into all sorts of reasons -- is it mentality, tactics? There are so many things. If you are drilled into playing a certain way, as we were for the last couple of years, there was a real structure to it and you just get into the habit of playing that way. That is good, because it shows that the manager has you playing that way, how he wanted it, but it's not always easy to snap in and out of ways of playing.
Jose is now getting his way and philosophy into the team and that is the job of a manager and why it is tough, when teams chop and change their managers, for players to adjust from one philosophy to another.
Q: How did the meeting go when you and Wayne Rooney went to see Van Gaal at the start of last season?
A: We just spoke to him as the senior players, to have a conversation to say that everyone wanted to be better. We weren't having a great time in terms of results and it happens to a lot of teams, but you just have to do something about it. It was a fair conversation, nobody went in there fighting or anything, and it wasn't really a big deal. It probably sounded like a big deal, but it happens all the time at clubs all over the country.
Sometimes a manager will pull you aside in training or in his office, but it just so happened that me and Wayne went to chat to him. It got built up to quite a big thing, but that's just the way it is.
Mark Ogden is a senior football writer for ESPN FC. Follow him @markogden_
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