Paul Scholes believes Michael Carrick should have left Manchester United with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as the new caretaker manager “let the club down” just as much as his former boss.
Carrick, along with Kieran McKenna and Mike Phelan, assisted Solskjaer before the Norwegian was sacked as manager ahead of Tuesday’s game with Villarreal. The trio are now in temporary charge as the club looks for an interim to see out the campaign.
But former midfielder Scholes was not impressed to see them given the reins having been an integral part of the previous regime, with his sense that the club backed themselves into a corner by not sacking Solskjaer earlier.
“It’s the same people running the team, the same people given massive responsibility every week to put that team on the pitch,” he told BT Sport on Tuesday evening.
“Arguably it’s more Kieran McKenna and Michael Carrick who’ve been preparing the team. Ole gave them that responsibility, so how that changes now I don’t know.
“Four weeks ago, that Liverpool game. That was the time we knew Ole was going to go, it was plainly obvious. So then the people above had to prepare the next manager and the next batch of staff.
“I’d be almost embarrassed being the staff now, after what happened to Ole. I think they all should have gone. They were part of Ole’s team, Ole trusted them each week to prepare the team - and they’ve let the club and players down as much as Ole has.”
Scholes noted that he was “good friends” with some of those now in charge of the team but asserted that they should feel “guilty” for their role in Solskjaer’s exit
Fellow ex-United star Rio Ferdinand added that the caretakers had little time to show the squad that they would offer something different in their new roles.
“It would be a hard couple of days,” said Ferdinand.
“There’s a focus from that squad of, ‘What’s your next move? What are your first few words - that will determine whether we are going to follow you or see you as one of the people who didn’t work before’. It’s a huge moment.”
