Michael Carrick goes back home on Wednesday.
There will be those who do not think of Carrick as a Geordie, given his playing career was at West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, and Manchester has been home for the past 20 years. He does not have a thick Geordie accent. But Carrick comes from Newcastle, from Howdon in the east of the city, and his first football experiences were with the famous Wallsend Boys’ Club — the ‘Boyza’ as Carrick knew and knows them.
So while the opening lines of Carrick’s 2018 autobiography, Between the Lines, are: “I didn’t just play for Manchester United. I lived for them,” his football life originates on the streets of Newcastle by the River Tyne.
Via his very readable book, subtly ghost-written by Henry Winter, The Athletic has retraced Carrick’s Tyneside roots and his route through playing to the point when he is preparing to start his Pro Licence in January 2019. He has just been brought onto the United coaching staff by Jose Mourinho.
A lot has happened since; a lot happened before.
Early in Between the Lines, Carrick provides an evocative memory from the Wallsend Parade of 1992, when he was 11. There were, he says, “twelve of us boys singing our hearts out all the way through town on the back of a red lorry with a banner stating: ‘Wallsend Boys’ Club, suppliers to the football industry’.” The Boyza was integral to the north-east footballing landscape.
Industry and football, those were two Wallsend characteristics and remain so. On the way to and from Stephenson Primary School — school logo: Stephenson’s Rocket — Carrick would play one-twos off lamp-posts.
Carrick’s father Vince worked in nuclear power plants around Britain. His mother Lynn worked in a school and was in the Salvation Army. Carrick’s wife, Lisa, is a Geordie.
Vince was a good schoolboy footballer, represented County Durham and went on trial with Middlesbrough, the club his son would later coach. Vince also co-authored the history of Wallsend Boys. His father, Owen, had England trials at youth level. Carrick’s great-uncle John played for Millwall. On various branches of Carrick’s family tree, there is football. His brother Graeme is a coach.
Vince Carrick was an avid Newcastle fan and first took Michael to St James’ Park when Carrick was six. Vince’s favourite Newcastle player was Malcolm ‘Supermac’ Macdonald, but his favourite all-time player was George Best. VHS videos of both were staples in the Carrick household. Macdonald had departed Newcastle United by the time Michael was sitting on a concrete barrier in the then-uncovered Gallowgate End. The Brazilian Mirandinha was up front.
“That exhilaration of climbing the steps inside the Gallowgate will never leave me,” Carrick writes. That will resonate with Newcastle supporters. He was there the seismic day in 1992 when Kevin Keegan returned as manager.
Carrick, centre-forward as a boy, was attracting attention. He went on trial with Boro, guested in a tournament for Stoke City and, aged 12, was asked by Newcastle to go with their under-14s to the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland. John Carver, then academy head and later interim Newcastle manager, handed Carrick a club tracksuit and, on Carrick’s 13th birthday in July 1994, Peter Beardsley gave him a cake.
Beardsley was once of Wallsend Boys himself. When he left Newcastle for Liverpool, (whisper it at Old Trafford) Carrick began wearing Liverpool kit like his cousin Gary. Jan Molby became a Carrick favourite, as we might expect of an elegant midfielder.
Paul Gascoigne was another local hero, but Carrick was feeling the pull of West Ham. Other London clubs — Arsenal, Chelsea and Crystal Palace pursued him — but Carrick recalls telling his father West Ham were his preference. “They play two-touch football, Dad, they don’t launch it.” Even then, style was all important as the youngster mapped out his future career.
So Carrick began to take the train from Newcastle Central to King’s Cross with other boys. They would be picked up by Jimmy Hampson, West Ham’s youth development coach. Once, when Carrick’s last train back to Newcastle was cancelled, Hampson drove him the whole way home so he would not miss school the next day.
Carrick signed a two-year YTS contract on £42.50 a week and absorbed Hampson’s kindness, Tony Carr’s youth-team education and the commitment of two boys slightly older — Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard. Lampard’s father, Frank Snr, was an influence and West Ham showed patience when Carrick’s teenage body developed at a rate that concerned him.
They had his eyes tested when Vince thought there could be a problem. There was. “I was as blind as a bat,” Carrick says.
He loved West Ham, even the staged wrestling match with fellow apprentice Stephen Purches, whom Carrick will see on Wednesday, as Purches is part of Eddie Howe’s coaching staff.
Carrick’s debut came under Harry Redknapp at Bradford City in the Premiership, as it was then known. Carrick replaced Ferdinand late on and was praised by Redknapp for a pass to Paolo Di Canio. It was one month after turning 18, Carrick was on £400 a week, a professional — one of more than 90 who have made it from Wallsend Boys, such as Alan Shearer and, lately, Elliot Anderson.
Redknapp quickly sent Carrick on loan to Swindon Town for an eye-opening six weeks. When Carrick was brought back, Redknapp informed him he would be starting the Hammers’ next game. It was away at Newcastle.
It finished 2-2 and Carrick played all 90 minutes alongside Marc-Vivien Foe and opposite Gary Speed. He says he felt emotionally drained at half-time, and physically exhausted. But he stuck at it. “People look at my career and say nice things about composure, but I’m a fighter too. I don’t give up.”
Under Glenn Roeder, Carrick was given the No 6 shirt, which attached him to Bobby Moore. But Redknapp was gone, West Ham sold Ferdinand and, in May 2003, they were relegated with 42 points. Injured, Carrick missed the end of the season, but he was there at Birmingham City (where he’d also had a short loan) to witness the drop.
There was a fire sale but Carrick stayed. West Ham reached the Championship play-off final in May 2004, but lost to Palace. Carrick was about to turn 23 and decided to leave. The club who knocked on the door first were Newcastle. They offered £2m ($2.7m), but said the deal would have to wait until the following transfer window. Carrick found it odd and declined.
Then Portsmouth called. Pompey were in the Premier League and had Redknapp in charge. It was early August, the season looming and Carrick met Redknapp near Heathrow. It went well but, going home in the car with his agent, Arsenal chairman David Dein rang. Arsene Wenger wanted to meet Carrick.
Within an hour, he was sitting in the front room of Arsene Wenger’s house in Totteridge, north London.
It was a Friday night. Arsenal were playing Manchester United in the Community Shield in Cardiff on Sunday. Arsenal expected Patrick Vieira to leave for Real Madrid, so Wenger played a 17-year-old, Cesc Fabregas, in midfield. Fabregas excelled and even though, on the Saturday, Dein had made an offer to West Ham for Carrick, by Monday Wenger had thought twice. The Carrick deal was off.
Just as Dein’s phone call had come out of nowhere, so did the next one. It was from Frank Arnesen, Tottenham’s sporting director. Rather than signing for Arsenal on August 9, Carrick joined Spurs on August 24.
He was entitled to feel bewildered, particularly as, under Spurs’ manager Jacques Santini, he found himself training with the reserves on his first day. Carrick felt humiliated — it will give him an understanding of Kobbie Mainoo’s recent situation.
Santini was soon gone and Carrick expresses gratitude for his replacement, Martin Jol. Under Jol, Carrick made his first Spurs start in the Tottenham 4-5 Arsenal epic of November 2004 — up against Fabregas. His last came in May 2006, West Ham 2-1 Tottenham, the day of ‘Lasagne-gate’. Carrick was one of those Spurs players who was violently ill. Back at Upton Park, he lasted an hour.
At Tottenham, on and off the pitch, Carrick was enjoying himself. There is a glimpse of a future manager’s outlook when he writes: “Camaraderie goes a long way in making a team”. But defeat at West Ham meant Spurs missed out on Champions League qualification and an uncertain end to 2005-06.
At least Carrick was selected by England for the World Cup in Germany that summer. He won 34 England caps over a 14-year period under Sven-Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren, Fabio Capello and Roy Hodgson. But, as Carrick says, he was named in 87 squads and made only seven competitive starts. He mentions how, culturally, he would have liked to have been in a Gareth Southgate England squad; interesting considering his current assistant, Steve Holland, was Southgate’s No 2.
Something significant did happen in Germany, though. Carrick’s mobile rang and the caller was Sir Alex Ferguson. The second half of Michael Carrick’s football career was underway.
On Carrick’s 25th birthday in the summer of 2006, Tottenham announced a deal had been concluded. United had offered £12m and paid £18m. Carrick notes a lot of people were unconvinced and part of him agreed when he heard Ferguson describe him as “a shy boy who needs to be shaken at times”.
The shy boy took Roy Keane’s No 16 jersey to add to Moore’s No 6.
Carrick had heard about the self-policed intensity of United’s senior players’ training, and had been so keen to feel it, contractual personal terms were secondary. He soon discovered United did not offer weekly win bonuses in the league, as they were expected to win.
Ferguson considered Carrick a Geordie, like two previous club legends Sir Bobby Charlton and Bryan Robson. Carrick noticed how Ferguson never said ‘United’, always ‘Manchester United’. His team talks always included “concentration” and “penetration” and an incessant driving of standards. After Carrick’s first United start, an away win at Watford, Ferguson strode angrily into the dressing room to shout: “I’m not having that. That’s not good enough.”
To Carrick’s surprise, Ferguson’s relentlessness included major fitness work in January. United were preparing for the months of April and May — “our time”, as players like Gary Neville called it.
And in May 2007 — Carrick’s first Old Trafford spring — United won the Premier League. His favourite match was the 1-0 win at Anfield in March; John O’Shea’s unlikely late winner. Carrick scored the opener in the 7-1 win against Roma at Old Trafford in the Champions League. He was all-in: “I’d only been there nine months but United was my religion now.”
One year on, United retained the Premier League.
Fans will look askance at his praise for the Glazer family being there the day the title was clinched at Wigan Athletic. United’s game after Wigan was the Champions League final in Moscow against Chelsea. It was 40 years since United won the European Cup for a first time and 50 since the Munich air crash. Carrick writes movingly about it, how affected he and the squad were hearing Charlton speak.
Carrick successfully took the second kick in the penalty shoot-out United won 6-5. In the happy maelstrom of Moscow, he says his thoughts returned to Wallsend Boys.
Another year on and United were in the Champions League final again, this time in Rome against Barcelona. Carrick focuses on his mis-placed header which Andres Iniesta seized upon. Instantly, Samuel Eto’o made it 1-0. It ended 2-0 and Carrick says his playing hangover lasted a year. He talks of depression, of wanting to exit a profession he loved; 2009-10 was his worst season.
But by May 2011, United and Barcelona were meeting in the final again. Again Barcelona won. Carrick accepts this, as here was peak Pep Guardiola-Barca with Lionel Messi, Xavi, Sergio Busquets and Iniesta all starring.
May 2012 brought further pain — Sergio Aguero winning the Premier League title in the last seconds of the season to pip United on goal difference. United were at Sunderland that day and Carrick’s Newcastle-ness comes through. Most significant, though, is his memory of Ferguson walking down the team bus afterwards saying: “Don’t you ever forget what this feels like.”
Unknown to all, Ferguson was entering his last season at Old Trafford. United, inspired by the previous May and by the signing of Robin van Persie, won it with ease and Carrick takes particular pleasure from the game at Queens Park Rangers when he heard the chant: “It’s Carrick, you know, it’s hard to believe it’s not Scholes.” He treasures the compliment.
In Ferguson’s last-ever match in May 2013 — 5-5 at West Bromwich Albion — Carrick was captain. He then signed a new contract under Ferguson’s successor, David Moyes. Carrick does not lay responsibility totally with Moyes for that 2013-14 season. In came Louis van Gaal with his precision and discipline, which Carrick appreciated, but not Van Gaal’s sometimes mechanical attitude to training.
Carrick learned under Van Gaal and notes being pushed back to centre-half for a league game at Anfield that United won. He is less pleased with a collective selfie United took afterwards.
With Dutch bluntness, Van Gaal had informed Carrick that the 2016 FA Cup final would be Carrick’s last match. Wayne Rooney and Carrick lifted the trophy together but in the dressing room, news began to filter that it was, in fact, Van Gaal’s last United match.
Van Gaal’s successor, Mourinho, telephoned Carrick to say he wanted to give him a new contract. Approaching 35, Carrick signed without hesitation. He was made captain again.
But during his first game of the 2017-18 season, against Burton Albion in the League Cup, Carrick suddenly sensed his body buckling. It turned out he had an abnormal heart rhythm; he was taken to hospital in an ambulance.
In late November, a club announcement revealed the issue publicly. Carrick resumed training and reappeared for the first team at Yeovil in the FA Cup in 2018. But he was 36 and knew his career was coming to a close.
There was one last away appearance in the Premier League — at St James’ Park — and a last-day match against Watford at Old Trafford. Carrick was given a guard of honour. The next morning, there was a text from Mourinho about that week’s coaching plan. Carrick was off into this new direction.
“A decent player doesn’t automatically make a decent manager, I know that,” he says.
Acknowledging as much will stand him in good stead, but he looks pretty decent at the minute. In seven games as United’s manager, Carrick has six wins and a draw. When he succeeded Ruben Amorim, United were seventh with 32 points; today they are third with 51 points.
Carrick has faced West Ham and Tottenham and now it is Newcastle, St James’ and memories of Wallsend blowing down the big river. He may have left the area but he is far from disconnected — Carrick’s Foundation funds the post of general manager at Wallsend Boys.
Ultimately, re-reading ‘Between the Lines’ brings reminders of the richness of Carrick’s experience. With his natural football intelligence and personal maturity, he should make a very good manager as much as a coach. Yet after an impressive beginning at Middlesbrough, last season was an injury-hit puzzle that faded out.
All is hardly perfect at Old Trafford, but Carrick has galvanised a drifting squad into, so far, winners. There are 10 games left. How he would like spring 2026 to be “our time” for Manchester United again. He certainly will not want a first loss to be in front of the Gallowgate End he was once part of.