Carrick Took Training Tuesday. His Future Gets Decided in Monaco Wednesday.

Michael Carrick drove into Carrington at 7:15 on Tuesday morning and took training. The squad in front of him was the leftovers — twelve of his players are away with their countries — and the two men reviewing his job were not in the building. Chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox spent Monday at Carrington running the review. On Tuesday, by every account, they were bound for Monaco.

That is where this gets decided. Berrada and Wilcox meet Sir Jim Ratcliffe in Monaco on Wednesday and present what the review found. The Glazer family, United's majority owners, get informed. Sports Mole, working from Sky Sports and BBC Sport reporting, puts a possible announcement at Thursday — and says that if the call goes against Carrick, the club wants to tell him face to face.

Read Monday's coverage back and the temperature has flipped in a day. On Monday evening the BBC reported that United look increasingly likely to sack Carrick, with Berrada and Wilcox expected to recommend his dismissal to Ratcliffe and the Glazers. No final decision had been made — the Press Association heard the same insistence from Old Trafford sources late on Monday — but the direction is no longer hard to read. The Athletic went further on Monday night: David Ornstein, Laurie Whitwell and Adam Crafton reported that United intend to relieve Carrick of his duties, that work on replacements has started, and that a change is anticipated before the trip to Liverpool on November 22.

The Manchester Evening News put a sharper edge on it. Tyrone Marshall reported that the hierarchy has lost faith, that Berrada and Wilcox are recommending a change, and that Carrick was expected to be sacked on Tuesday. He was not — he ran the session, and the BBC's Simon Stone reported that neither Carrick nor his staff have been told anything. The honest state of play sits between those lines: no decision has been announced, the recommendation is travelling to Monaco, and the manager worked Tuesday like a man who still has the job. Because, until Wednesday, he does.

The review does not need long with the numbers. United are 18th in the Premier League with eight points and one win from ten games — a solitary August win over Ipswich Town, per the Press Association. They are winless in eight in the league. Their 19 goals conceded are the joint-third most in the division. Ten games in, this is the club's worst start to a top-flight season in 40 years.

What bought Carrick his Monday was real, and it happened twice in six days. United were 2-0 down to Roma last Tuesday and won 3-2, Matheus Cunha scoring at 83 and 86 minutes. On Sunday they were 2-0 down to Aston Villa inside four minutes — Alysson in the first minute, Nicolas Jackson in the fourth — and 4-2 down in the second half, and still left with a point: Joshua Zirkzee at 90+2, Patrick Dorgu's header at 90+6. No Premier League side had ever levelled twice from two down in the same game. Every goal from that afternoon is on the match's Game Center page.

The successor reporting already has a name at the top of it. Multiple sources have told BBC Sport that Mauricio Pochettino would be open to a move to Old Trafford. Sky Sports News understands he would be open to a discussion if approached, and puts the cost of buying him out of the USA job at around £7 million; the clause in his deal has been reported at £7.4 million. The catch is written into his calendar: Pochettino signed an extension in August that runs through the 2030 World Cup, and the United States play Haiti in a two-legged Nations League quarter-final on November 14 and 18. Behind him, the BBC reported in October that United had already sounded out Eddie Howe and Julian Nagelsmann, and that Antonio Conte is keen on the job.

Whoever holds the job on November 22 walks into Anfield. Liverpool may go into that game sweating on their captain: Virgil van Dijk withdrew from the Netherlands squad on Monday, the Dutch federation said he was not fit, and no replacement was called up. Van Dijk played every minute of Liverpool's Premier League season through Sunday's 3-1 win at Crystal Palace, and his last international appearance, against Serbia in October, was his 100th cap. The severity has been played down in the reporting since — a precaution protects him for exactly this fixture, one he has not missed since coming back from his torn ACL in 2021.

Carrick had one door he could close himself, and he closed it on Sunday. Asked whether he would walk away, he said: "It's not going to happen, no." He kept that part on Tuesday, in at 7:15, training as normal. The rest gets decided in Monaco on Wednesday.