Carrick Dismisses ‘Favourable Start’ Comments as United Prepare for Season

Michael Carrick is having none of it. Hull away, Ipswich at home – on paper, a gentle glide into the new campaign. In his eyes, it’s anything but.

Manchester United open their season at Hull on Saturday before welcoming Ipswich to Old Trafford a week on Sunday, two clubs fresh from promotion out of the Championship. That sequence has been quickly labelled a soft launch for a side tipped to kick on after last year’s revival under Carrick.

He disagrees. Strongly.

“For all of us to know this league, there’s no favourable start, I think it’s a tough start,” he said. “A promoted team away from home is a tough game.

“I’ve been involved in them in the past so I’m fully aware of what’s coming at us on Saturday, what we’ve got to be ready for. So it’s not favourable. It’s an easy thing to throw out there. But it’s pretty ridiculous in a certain way, [we are] not taking it that way at all.”

Carrick has lived those opening-day ambushes as a player. He knows the noise, the adrenaline, the sense of a club newly promoted trying to announce itself in one afternoon. Hull will have a packed stadium and a point to prove. Ipswich will bring the same energy to Old Trafford a week later. Carrick is treating both like traps.

Title talk and the ‘next jump’

His stance on the fixture list feeds into a wider theme: he wants no shortcuts in the conversation around United’s ambitions.

Carrick took over in January as interim manager, steadied a drifting side and drove them to third place. Four months later he was made permanent on the strength of that run. Naturally, the next question lands: can United go from third to champions in one leap?

“It is going to be a jump,” the 45-year-old admitted. “I would never say we can’t – I don’t believe that. But it’s about what we are capable of doing as a group.

“The run of form we had last season gives us a lot of confidence, but we know there is a whole new step to make. We are pushing to do that. It’s exciting. We have the potential to achieve things and we will definitely give it everything we can. We have to believe we are a good team and can do good things.”

There’s no bold prediction, no guarantee. Just a clear demand: belief, backed by work. The message is aimed as much at his dressing room as anyone outside it.

Squad building: Baleba talks and left-back hunt

Behind that rhetoric sits the transfer business United still hope to complete before the window shuts.

The club are working on a deal for Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba and are optimistic they can land him for under £75m. The 20-year-old would add legs and bite to a midfield Carrick has already reshaped in his own image.

United are also active in the search for a left-back, still looking to strengthen in a position that has felt exposed at times.

“We are looking to strengthen the squad, working towards that,” Carrick said. “We are trying to make the most of the opportunities to finish the window stronger than we went into it and are in a good way to doing that so far.”

No fanfare, just a clear indication that United expect to emerge from deadline day better equipped than when pre-season began.

Mount a doubt for Hull

One immediate concern sits closer to home. Mason Mount, who finished last season strongly, is a doubt for the trip to Hull after taking a knock. His availability is “in the balance”, leaving Carrick to weigh up whether to risk a key midfielder in a potentially bruising opener.

If Mount misses out, United’s depth – and the urgency of those late-window moves – will be tested straight away.

Hull first. Ipswich next. Title ambitions in the background, transfer deals in motion. Carrick has stripped away any illusion of comfort around United’s start.

Now his players have to match his words on a promoted side’s home turf, where “favourable” quickly disappears once the whistle blows.