Ahead of this weekend’s Michael Carrick testimonial, former Reds club captain Gary Neville pays enlightening tribute to a player of undying commitment to the cause and a driver of high standards…
"When I first heard Michael Carrick had signed for United, I already knew what a good player he was because I’d just been with him at the 2006 World Cup. However, you don’t know how any player will adapt to being at United, so none of us were sure how he’d settle – and it was certainly a bold move to come in and take Roy Keane’s squad number!
"Straight away and over the following years, even amongst my friends and even when we were winning leagues, there were challenges to convince people about how good a player Michael was, and how important he was to the team. Those battles never took place within the dressing room, though. One of the biggest compliments you can pay Michael is that the team-mates around him had huge appreciation for him. He made everybody play better.
"Paul Scholes is the best person to speak to about Michael because he would admit that he got the best out of him, making sure that Scholesy was served the ball with the correct angles at the correct times, making the team tick. Michael did the unseen things, really. You never saw him crunch into a tackle, panic or go to ground. The sign of a good player is that they always look in control, and Michael was always in control. His composure never wavered.
"What people may not understand is the quiet, introverted passion that he holds for Manchester United. When we won leagues, Michael would be the one singing the most and going home last from the parties; the one that would look the happiest and most joyous behind the scenes at having won a trophy. On the pitch, in front of the crowds, he’d maintain his composure, but behind the scenes he showed how much he loved the club. Believe me, he absolutely loves United.
"There’s this thing about football fans where they almost have to see players bleed out on the pitch, see you screaming, shouting, grabbing the badge before they understand that you’re actually passionate about the club. With Michael, the passion was there but it was displayed in completely different ways. He was signed, but he grew to love the club as much as any of the ones who had been here for years. I don’t think externally that has ever been put out there, but it’s important that message comes across. He is absolutely committed to the club in a way in which only people who have played with him would know.
"He’s also an incredible role model. I can think back through my United career and when I think about the greatest professionals, I could point towards my brother, towards Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and towards Michael Carrick. Everyone was a professional under Sir Alex Ferguson but then beyond that, there were people who never made a mistake, never did anything wrong.
"Michael would always do every single rep in the gym, every single inch of every warm-up; he made sure he ate every single thing right, did absolutely every single bit of pre-activation, was always in the gym with the fitness coaches and sports scientists, always did the hydration tests, did absolutely everything by the book and set an incredibly high standard not only for himself, but also in the dressing room.
"They’re the sort of things people may not understand when they haven’t worked with him. He’s as professional as they come. Any young player at United now would look up to Michael and realise: that’s how you get to the end of a career looking how he looks, performing how he performs, as fit as he is. He’s brilliant. When you’re a young player coming through, you want to be able to look up in the dressing room and see somebody who has been there, who can almost be a father figure to comfort you on the pitch, someone who can settle you down. Michael does that without even knowing.
"He provides that comfort blanket for people around him, and the likes of Luke Shaw or Marcus Rashford, if they want any idea of how to create a 12, 13, 14-year career at the highest level, just look at what Michael does every single day from the moment he comes into training to the moment he faces the cameras post-match. Even when results fall below the standards of Manchester United, you always see him come out and do the interviews afterwards and handle himself perfectly; he never hides away.
"I think it’s taken a long time for Michael to be appreciated for his level of performance and the importance to the team and squad that he has, to this day. I think he brought the 2016/17 season back on track for United, at a point earlier in the season where, at times, the team needed stability and control. That changed every time he played, and Jose Mourinho recognised that he brought something to the team that isn’t always visible.
"I think when people come into the club, even coaches, it maybe takes them some time to understand that the team is just better with him in it. He composes everything, sorts everything out, makes sure there’s a balance, serves passes into strikers with a perfect weight. There were more obvious contenders for the club’s player of the season award, but Michael, for me, was the player who brought the season back on track and brought some order back to Manchester United.
"He’s a brilliant player and as a person, I just can’t speak highly enough of him. If there’s just one complaint I can have about him, it’s that he’s asked me to play in this testimonial, and the biggest compliment I can pay him is that if it was anyone else I’d have said no! He’s probably the only person who could possibly get me back on the Old Trafford pitch. I desperately wanted to say no to him, because after Scholesy’s testimonial I swore I would never set foot on that pitch ever again in a pair of boots, but when Michael rang I didn’t feel I could say no to him because I like him that much."
. I definitely did before I read about it this morning.....
