Who should replace Michael Carrick as Man United boss as pressure mounts? Bringing in Unai Emery would be the best thing INEOS have done, writes NATHAN SALT... but would Eddie Howe simply be Carrick 2.0?

Michael Carrick is on the brink of the sack and the sorry cycle of managerial churn in the corridors of Old Trafford is set to pick up once again.

Fans turned on key figures such as director of football Jason Wilcox and CEO Omar Berrada in the closing stages of Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to AFC Bournemouth and they will be under enormous amounts of pressure to get the next appointment right.

Behind the scenes there has long been a difference of opinion on which direction to go next.

As exclusively reported by Daily Mail Sport, Wilcox and director of recruitment Christopher Vivell have been at odds as tensions grow between the pair, with Vivell pushing for former Bayern Munich and Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann, while Wilcox wants a Premier League proven manager. Eddie Howe is his preferred candidate.

So, with that in mind, Daily Mail Sport assesses the five candidates on the club’s internal shortlist to see who the best fit for Manchester United, now at such a low ebb just above the relegation zone, is…

Fans turned on key figures such as director of football Jason Wilcox and CEO Omar Berrada in the closing stages of Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to AFC Bournemouth

Eddie Howe (out of work)

The front-runner as it stands given he is the preferred choice of the director of football.

There is an irony in that given former director of football, Dan Ashworth, lobbied for Howe before Ruben Amorim arrived, only to find himself out of a job for not agreeing to hire the Portuguese boss.

That aside, Howe’s appeal is that there is no compensation required to get him as he currently continues his break from the game after leaving Newcastle following a successful five years in the North East in which he ended their 70-year trophy drought with a League Cup.

Privately, Howe is keeping his cards close to his chest but he knows that he checks a lot of the boxes, not least that he’s shown he can cut it in the Premier League and Champions League.

One of Howe’s biggest strengths is that he’s viewed as someone who can build a team from the ground up and privately, figures at United believe he has a track record of improving players through coaching on the training ground.

United sought a low-key character after the fireworks of Amorim but numerous figures close to the dressing room are keen to see an inspirational leader walk through the door and that isn’t really Howe’s MO.

The next manager needs to galvanise a club that is hurtling towards the bottom three with an apathy kicking in that this doomed group are merely rinsing and repeating the same problems.

Where other contenders such as Antonio Conte would achieve that in the short term, Howe’s temperament is much closer to Carrick’s and that may be one reason why some behind the scenes will be hesitating.

Odds: 4-6 (favourite)

Wilcox is a fan and he has enormous sway – for now at least – on the appointment of the next manager. Howe is available to start straight away and won’t cost a penny in compensation. For a club as cheap as United, that’s worth its weight in gold.

Howe’s temperament is much closer to Carrick’s and that may be one reason why some behind the scenes are hesitating

Julian Nagelsmann (out of work)

The other leading contender, pushed heavily by Vivell in the boardroom.

Nagelsmann’s stock took a hit after a disastrous World Cup in charge of Germany but even with that, there has long been a fascination in England about the suave 39-year-old.

He has long been viewed as one of Europe’s rising young stars on the coaching scene and therefore it’s no surprise to know that Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur have all looked at him when job openings came up.

Tactically he is incredibly detailed and is closer to the Amorim and Ten Hag mould, where Howe, from a personality point, is closer to that of Carrick.

Nagelsmann is also free to begin work right away – a key reason he too is near the front of the queue – and one feather in his cap is that he’s had two enormous high-pressure jobs previously in Bayern Munich and Germany.

He could walk into a dressing room and not be overawed by what he finds having had the two biggest jobs in German football and that shouldn’t be underestimated given the next man is walking into a dressing room completely devoid of confidence and belief.

It was Monday when club captain Bruno Fernandes was liking a post on social media claiming he had been pushed to a point where he no longer cares.

‘I strongly believe that if you want to be successful, empathy and taking care of the person behind the player is of greater importance than any tactical aspects,’ Nagelsmann said in his early managerial days.

‘I place great emphasis in giving my players a clear tactical plan to help and support in match situations. But the relationship I have with them is very, very important to me.’

He’s never managed in the Premier League and the worry is that this could be Amorim Mark II, even with so much potential behind him.

This one comes down to the power battle between Wilcox and Vivell and it’s unlikely one the latter will win.

Odds: 5-2

A Premier League job feels inevitable and he’s got lots of admirers in the building at United. This just feels like this could be the wrong timing given many at United are still reeling from the gamble they took on an up-and-coming manager in Amorim.

Tactically Nagelsmann is incredibly detailed and is closer to the Amorim and Ten Hag mould, where Howe, from a personality point, is closer to that of Carrick

Antonio Conte (out of work)

The last of the out of work managers to have seen their name crop up in discussions about who and what comes next.

One thing to say is that Conte wants the job and nobody on the shortlist would inject as much short-term adrenaline into the entire club than the Italian. He’d put rockets up all the right people to get a much-needed response.

The issue is that he’s highly combustible and while Sir Jim Ratcliffe has previously gravitated to those who challenge him – Amorim did that and Ratcliffe liked him for it – this feels like a candidate that may be a bridge too far for the thinner-skinned execs put in place by Ratcliffe.

‘My name has been linked with numerous clubs, but there are currently no negotiations at an advanced stage,’ Conte wrote on Instagram in the past week following a damning report in Italian paper La Repubblica.

‘I have read reports of financial demands and requests for full control that I have supposedly already made to the clubs mentioned, as well as reservations about what has been described as my "strong personality". These reports are unfounded.’

Conte is a hybrid candidate that can point to tangible success in England at both Chelsea, where he won the Premier League, and at Tottenham where, for as toxic as it ended, he wasn’t wrong about the issues that the club badly needed to fix.

Players in the dressing room are looking for an inspirational leader to get behind – that’s a quality numerous sources have put to Daily Mail Sport in recent hours and days – and Conte is undoubtedly the man for that job.

He’s won the Premier League, won Serie A, won the FA Cup, and has a resume that he knows what he’s doing.

But the current United structure is very rigid, and the manager isn’t the ultimate shot-caller.

Also, this squad would need major surgery to get it close to playing the intense football Conte would want to play. Feels very unlikely.

Odds: 5-1

Even with his statement dismissing a lot of the concerns attached to his name, he’s seen as too combustible to fit in around all the cooks in the kitchen that is this shambolic boardroom.

Players in the dressing room are looking for an inspirational leader to get behind and Conte is undoubtedly the man for that job

Unai Emery (Aston Villa)

INEOS continue to preach a desire to bring a ‘best in class’ mantra to Manchester United and as laughable as that is given their work to date, bringing in Unai Emery would be the best thing they’ve done to this point.

Emery is at the very top when it comes to the Premier League’s managerial rankings given what he’s done at Aston Villa, who are a major player in the Champions League so far this season.

Villa have no desire to lose Emery – naturally – and while his release clause, if one exists, is no doubt so sky high that it’s prohibitive from United coming in and poaching the Villans' beacon of light in the dugout.

Emery works in a very particular way and that is also a question mark, beyond the enormous compensation that would be required. It would likely usurp the £20million Chelsea had to pay Brighton to get Graham Potter and his staff.

The Spaniard has an enormous amount of power and that would have to be curbed at United unless they went in a totally different direction: one that bestows all of the power to the manager.

His colder personality, compared to say, Howe, is a mark against his name when it comes to getting buy-in from a dressing room that grumble at the most minor inconvenience.

He will try his luck at one of the game’s top, top jobs at some stage but United feels like a stretch given, at the very least, they won’t put the money up for compensation, never mind back him sufficiently in the transfer window to overhaul a squad that is failing miserably.

Odds: 17-2

A top, top manager and perhaps the best candidate on the shortlist given everything he’s achieved. He wrongly gets mocked for his command of English but he’s tactically immense and can make a credible case to be the No1 boss in the Premier League. He’s just too expensive, and United’s hierarchy is notoriously cheap.

Emery has an enormous amount of power and that would have to be curbed at United unless they went in a totally different direction, one that bestows all of the power to the manager

Fabian Hurzeler (Brighton)

The candidate of choice for Wilcox if money was no object.

Hurzeler is the hot young coach taking the Premier League by storm now, with Brighton in the top three with five wins from the first eight games.

At just 33, he’s a rising star and he’s shown no signs of being overwhelmed since arriving as the Premier League’s youngest-ever coach when he pitched up at 31 from St Pauli in 2024.

Hurzeler spoke earlier this season after knocking Carrick’s United out of the Carabao Cup about how powerful the Brighton structure is and that cannot be underestimated. Everyone is so aligned it has allowed him to focus on coaching, which he’s doing to great success.

The German has built an aggressive, intense, high-press side at Brighton that so often runs over their opponents, all qualities that continually seem to be lacking from United’s sides in recent seasons.

Hurzeler is innovative, exciting and looks to have a bit of steel to him as well. There was a point last season where fans jeered and booed him, and privately some players had their doubts, but he never did as he turned it around.

The thorough dismantling of current league champions Arsenal earlier this season was a sign of how far he’s come and that he can mix it with the best, even with much more limited resources.

But compensation for Hurzeler would likely surpass the £20million it took to get Potter out given Hurzeler signed a three-year contract extension in May.

There are those close to him, too, that have intimated that he is the right coach at the wrong time and that he is not interested in jumping off the Brighton ship right now, not least given he has the chance to deliver European success in the Conference League, as well as a top five finish this campaign.

United’s squad is miles away from what Hurzeler needs to make his vision a success at Old Trafford but his stock is unlikely to diminish anytime soon and so don’t be surprised if Hurzeler eventually finds his way to Old Trafford… it just won’t be now.

Odds: 40-1

Brighton are clicking on every front right now and are a club heading in the right direction, where Manchester United are not. Opportunities for top jobs will keep coming and so he won’t have the overwhelming sense of ‘now or never’ like others do. He’s also just way too expensive right now.