Gary Neville hits out at Manchester United hierarchy: "It's just quite simply disgusting"

Gary Neville has described Manchester United's conduct in the process of removing Michael Carrick from his post as "disgusting".

With the Red Devils now certain to go into the international break in the Premier League relegation zone, Carrick's departure was officially announced by the club on Thursday.

With Crystal Palace also parting company with head coach Pierre Sage, it became only the second time in Premier League history that two head coaches have left their posts on the same day. The previous occasion was 15 December 2024, when Wolves dismissed Gary O'Neil and Southampton dismissed Russell Martin.

United's eight points from 10 games is their worst return at this stage of a league season since 1986-87 (also eight points), the campaign in which Alex Ferguson was appointed in November.

Neville is broadly positive about the prospect of Mauricio Pochettino, the former Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea head coach, taking charge of the team, but he was sharply critical of the manner of Carrick's exit.

It was reported that key figures in the INEOS hierarchy gathered in Monaco on Wednesday to discuss Carrick's future, that the former player was taking training at Carrington at the time, and that contacts with the US Soccer Federation over Pochettino were well advanced before the departure was announced.

Neville set out his view while speaking to Sky Sports.

Neville said that after the Bournemouth game he had felt United "effectively watched Michael Carrick resign on the pitch at the end of the game with that lap around". He added: "I think he was expecting it to come at that point and they were indecisive."

He said the club "obviously felt that they might be able to get to the international break" in the hope that results would improve, but that the last two weeks had been very difficult. "Indecision, lack of authority, just basically really poor leadership," he said.

"In the last 24-48 hours it's been spectacularly bad to be in Monaco as an executive and an owner," Neville continued, at a time when the head coach, "who's a club legend, is taking training on the pitch", and to be "simultaneously approaching the US Soccer Federation to approach Mauricio Pochettino".

"It's just quite simply disgusting. That falls well below the standard of what you would expect in any other business, in any other industry. It would be constructive dismissal and you'd be getting sued. I don't think anybody comes out of this well at all."

Should Pochettino take the job, his first game in charge of Manchester United would be away to Liverpool at Anfield on 22 November, with that demanding test followed three days later by a Champions League fixture against Sporting CP.