Carrick, Arteta & Eddie Howe: The Keepers, The Corpses, And The Man Who Dresses Too Well To Be This Bad

MSport | Feature · April 2026

Not every manager deserves the same fate. Some are building something real. Some are holding their clubs hostage with mediocrity dressed up as a process. And some have already had the trapdoor opened beneath them while they were still giving the presentation.

It is April 2026. The Premier League season is entering its most brutal phase. Chairmen are sharpening their pens. Agents are answering their phones. And these coaches are sitting on very different sides of a very important line.

Let us sort them out.

Let us be honest. Nobody gave Michael Carrick a prayer.

He walked into Old Trafford on January 13, and four days later beat Manchester City 2-0 in the derby — United's first win over their rivals at Old Trafford since January 2023. Then he beat Arsenal. Then Fulham. Then Tottenham. Back to back to back to back.

In 12 league matches, Carrick has won eight and drawn two, accumulating 26 points — an average of 2.16 per game, equivalent to 82 points over a full Premier League season. During his tenure, United also boast the joint-best attacking record in the league.

That is not a purple patch. That is a takeover.

The man came in quietly, put the players in positions they understand, stopped the existential panic, and Manchester United started looking like Manchester United again. No press conference theatrics, no motivational AI videos, no lighting fires at the training ground. Just football. Clean, structured, purposeful football.

Joe Cole put it best: "It's absurd to think of not giving it to him. He's come in, got more points than any other person in any other team. What more can you do?"

What more can you do indeed. If Manchester United overlook Carrick for a glamour appointment this summer, they deserve everything that follows. Give the man the job. Give him a proper transfer budget. Get out of his way.

Verdict: Keep him. Sign him permanently. Yesterday.

Yes, we roasted Arteta in our last feature. The roof metaphor still stands. April still haunts him like a recurring nightmare. And yes, watching him on the touchline against City yesterday was like watching a man defuse a bomb while simultaneously explaining his defusing methodology to a podcast.

But here is the uncomfortable counter-argument, even as they slip from the summit.

He has assembled one of the most talented squads in European football, built a genuine pressing identity, and taken a club that was finishing fifth and embarrassing themselves in cup competitions to serial title contenders. Yes, the familiar April collapse feels like it is happening again, and surrendering the top spot at this stage of the season is a bitter pill for a fanbase running on fumes of hope.

The issue is not whether Arteta is good. He clearly is. The issue is whether "good" eventually becomes "great" — and whether Arsenal's ownership has the patience to endure another late-season stumble to find out.

For now, with the title still mathematically within Arsenal's reach despite dropping off the top, sacking Arteta would be chaos, not leadership. You do not change the driver mid-race, even if he just scraped the barrier on the final few laps.

You wait. You watch. And if the wheels completely detach in these final games — if Newcastle rough them up, if the season officially collapses into another beautiful, pointless second (or third) place — then the Kroenkes sit down in the summer and have a very grown-up conversation about builders versus finishers.

Verdict: Keep him — but the clock is ticking louder than he thinks.

And here he was. The man of the moment. The walking, talking, fashionably-bespectacled embodiment of the phrase optics over output.

The Guardian dubbed him "LinkedIn Liam" after Chelsea's Champions League exit to PSG, citing boardroom jargon, an immaculate image, fashionable glasses, pristine trainers, and theatrical touchline movement. And honestly? They were not wrong.

Rosenior managed eleven wins and eight losses in his first 21 games in charge before the board finally pulled the plug. His side exited the Champions League, and their hopes of finishing in the top five rapidly declined.

Here was the thing about LinkedIn Liam: he talked beautifully. His press conferences were practically TED Talks. He spoke about "processes" and "environments" and "belief structures" with the confidence of a man who had absolutely nailed the interview but never quite figured out the job.

Chelsea gave this man a six-and-a-half-year contract. For a manager whose biggest prior achievement was finishing seventh in Ligue 1 with Strasbourg. That was not ambition. That was BlueCo doing BlueCo things — signing someone to a deal longer than most international peace treaties and then being surprised when it did not work.

One analyst put it perfectly: "Is Chelsea a football experiment or is it a private equity experiment?" At this point, it is genuinely hard to tell.

LinkedIn Liam came in, looked incredible, started well, and then — right on cue — the Premier League revealed itself to be slightly harder than Ligue 1. The writing was on the wall, and Chelsea finally did what needed to be done: they sacked him, ate the contract, and are starting again. It is not even the most expensive mistake BlueCo have ever made. Not even close.

Verdict: Thanked for his service. Glasses retired. Moving on.

This one genuinely hurts to write.

Eddie Howe is a good man. A good manager. He took Newcastle from relegation candidates to Champions League football, built a club culture from nothing, and turned St James' Park back into a fortress. For a period, Newcastle were one of the most exciting teams in England.

That period appears to be over.

Newcastle currently linger in 14th place after a run of three wins in their last 10 Premier League games. The CEO has publicly refused to give assurances about Howe's future. The fanbase is restless. The squad that once pressed with ferocious intensity now looks tired and tactically stale.

Reports suggest there is a "growing feeling among the hierarchy that Howe has taken the team as far as they can go," with his future described as "50-50." And that phrase — as far as they can go — is the most damning thing you can say about a manager without technically saying anything at all.

Howe has not done anything wrong. He has just done everything he can. The squad needs fresh ideas. The tactics need a reset. The players need new instructions from a new voice delivering them. Sometimes a great coach simply runs out of messages that land — and the squad stops hearing him.

The difference between Howe and Arteta is this: Arteta is still in the race. Howe has drifted to 14th. That is not a bump in form. That is a structural problem.

Newcastle's CEO Hopkinson said: "Eddie's our manager. We'll talk about the future when it's time." Translation: He is gone in the summer.

Verdict: Let him leave with dignity. He earned that much.

The Final Scorecard

Football does not reward loyalty. It rewards results. And right now, the Premier League is doing what it always does in April — separating the builders from the winners, the talkers from the doers, and the managers who understand the moment from the ones still trying to figure out what moment they are in.

Carrick gets it. Arteta almost gets it. Rosenior is still posting about it. And Howe — brave, honest, decent Eddie Howe — got it, gave everything, and simply ran out of road.

The axe does not care about any of that. It never does.

Written for MSport