The Mirror wrote that with players like Ganacho and Sancho leaving Manchester United on bad terms, Carrick needs to prevent dressing room problems from recurring.
Manchester United rarely have a quiet season, especially with those high-profile players who can pose a challenge to management.
Manchester United has seen a number of distinctive players arrive in recent years, while others have quickly left after providing much-needed relief to the club. In recent years, both Garnacho and Sancho have been criticized by coaches and teammates for their "bad attitude" and "laziness." Other more experienced stars who have also faced criticism from teammates and commentators include iconic figures like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lukaku. Current manager Carrick, who played alongside Ronaldo during his playing days, hopes to avoid a repeat of major dressing room problems that have plagued the club in recent years.
Since Carrick took over as manager of Manchester United, the team has a record of one win and one loss in the 2026/27 Premier League season, and will also be returning to the Champions League. He also hopes to maintain the positive atmosphere around Old Trafford. Last season, when he took over as interim manager, he led the team out of a difficult situation to a third-place finish in the league and secure European qualification. Below, the Mirror Football section reviews four former Manchester United players whose departures brought relief to the club. Garnacho had a good start at Manchester United, contributing 10 goal involvements in his first full season after being promoted to the first team. However, captain Roger Fernandes once said that the Argentine international's attitude was not good enough during his integration into the first team under Ten Hag. Roger Fernandes said in an interview with BT Sport in November 2022: "He's very good, but he knows we have high expectations for him. He's still young and performing very well."
He wasn't at his best at the start of the season. "His attitude wasn't at its best during the preseason tour, so he's only getting opportunities now." "He's getting opportunities because he's training better and his attitude is more positive." These words had the opposite effect on Ganacho. He fell out of favor under Amorim and even criticized Amorim for not playing him in the Europa League final loss to Tottenham. Ganacho said, "I played in every round until we reached the final."
I only played 20 minutes today – I don’t know. I’ll try to enjoy the summer and see what happens. Obviously, it’s a tough time for everyone. Our season has been terrible. We haven’t won against anyone in the league. We’re missing a lot of things. When you’re not scoring, you always need more.” The 22-year-old subsequently left Manchester United for Chelsea for £40 million. Garnacho failed to impress in West London and joined Aston Villa on loan this summer with a similar obligation to buy. Ronaldo will forever be remembered for his first stint at Manchester United, but his return in 2021 ended in disaster.
That year he scored 24 goals, rekindling nostalgia for many, but he subsequently fell out with Ten Hag and was released before the 2022 World Cup. The striker also gave a controversial interview to Piers Morgan, stating that the club "made no progress" after Ferguson's departure. Eriksson also publicly stated after Ronaldo's departure that football would continue without the Portuguese star.
He said: “First of all, we are sad that Ronaldo is not here. His resume and name are special at any club, and it has been very fortunate for me to play with him throughout my career. Football will go on. You feel that after the next game, people will forget what happened before, and right now our focus is actually to pretend he's not here.” Speaking about the improved dressing room atmosphere, Eriksson added: “The atmosphere is good. We have a lot of players coming back from the World Cup, and the last few players have also returned, so everyone is back together. The atmosphere is good. This helps to win, and before the World Cup, we had played a few good games and won a few games, which made it easier to start again after coming back.” Sancho joined Manchester United from Borussia Dortmund in 2021 for £73 million, attracting much attention. However, he was subsequently loaned out three times and left this summer after his contract expired. Sancho also clashed with Ten Hag and was excluded from the matchday squad due to his “lazy” performance in training. After Manchester United's 1-3 defeat to Arsenal in 2023, Ten Hag stated, "Based on his performance in training, we didn't select him. At Manchester United, you have to meet a standard every day, and we can make choices in the forward line. So he wasn't selected for this game." Sancho subsequently responded on social media, essentially accusing the Dutchman of lying in a post that was later deleted. He said, "Please don't believe everything you read! I won't let people say completely untrue things. I performed very well in training this week. I believe there are other reasons behind this, but I won't go into them. I've been made a scapegoat for a long time, and it's unfair!"
The Guardian reports that Manchester United players urged Jadon Sancho to apologize for his behavior after he was excluded from the squad and relegated to training with the U18s. Benedict McCarthy, a member of Erik ten Hag's coaching staff, spoke about the incident on the 947 Joburg program. He said, "I spoke to the manager, and I told him, you know how sensitive this is. I think Sancho felt that if he apologized, he would be labeled as not training hard enough, not working hard enough, as if all the previous accusations against him were true. If you come from the streets, nobody wants to apologize because once you apologize, it's like admitting you didn't train well, you're lazy, and all the accusations were true."
Sancho won't accept this. The manager simply said he wanted an apology. 'I've spoken to Sancho as a coach, mentor, friend, and even as someone who grew up on the streets and knows the rules. But Sancho just won't accept it. He said, "I won't apologize because if I apologize, I'm apologizing for being lazy, always late, and not giving my all. That's what I'm apologizing for.' That's his reasoning." Lukaku joined Manchester United from Everton in 2017 for around £75 million. Despite scoring 22 goals and providing 7 assists in his first season, his stats declined starting in his second. After leaving in 2019, Gary Neville quickly pointed out the reason. After Manchester United confirmed Lukaku's move to Inter Milan, the former United defender stated that the striker was an unprofessional member of the team because he couldn't maintain his fitness.
In 2019, Neville spoke to ESPN about Solskjaer's attempt to establish a "new culture" at Old Trafford, saying: "My view on Romelu Lukaku is that if Manchester United wants to establish a new atmosphere and culture through the club, and Solskjaer wants to do that, then any unprofessional behavior must be severely corrected. 'He didn't want to stay here anyway.' I think he's a very good player – he'll score a lot of goals and he'll play very well at Inter Milan."
In expressing his dissatisfaction with Lukaku's fitness, Neville added, "But I think it's absolutely unacceptable for a player to be overweight. You can play poorly, you can shoot wide, you can misplace crosses, you can concede goals—those are all mistakes in football—but you can't be overweight. We never go overweight, we're never out of form, we're never unprepared. How can you be overweight?! There are no excuses. Lukaku himself has admitted he's overweight, so there's no doubt about it anymore." After playing for Inter Milan, Chelsea, Roma, and Napoli, Lukaku now plays for Fenerbahce in Turkey. Follow us on our Manchester United Facebook page! For more Manchester United news, also follow our dedicated Facebook page.
