Michael Carrick: I was relegated once and I will never forget that

By Paul Wilson/The Guardian

I do not take winning things for granted,” Michael Carrick says, just in case anyone imagines Manchester United players are struggling to understand this strange new phenomenon called losing. “If you like being patted on the back for the good times you have to be prepared to take the bad times.”

It is easy to forget that United are the 32-year-old midfielder’s third Premier League club, having made his West Ham debut at the back end of the last century, and though Carrick can echo Rio Ferdinand’s evident discomfort at having to face the public on the school-run this season he manages to bring a footballing perspective to the situation rather than a tragicomic sense of lost entitlement.

 “I was relegated with West Ham and you never forget that,” he explains.  “Going down, playing in the Championship, I constantly remind myself of that. I still remember the feeling, without doubt, I wouldn’t allow myself to forget it. Those are the things that drive you on, that end up making you stronger. We have enjoyed a lot of success at Manchester United but each season has had its ups and downs.

 “There have been certain times here through the years when we have had, say, two bad results on the spin and the roof caves in. You think everything is wrong but we have still gone on to achieve things. It was just that week or so that was disastrous and horrible. This year it has been over a longer period, but hopefully next season we can get back to winning more often. I wouldn’t think for one second that we can’t be up there challenging next season.”

While some United supporters see little reason for such optimism, Carrick takes heart from an unusual source. “Look how much has changed for Liverpool from last year to this,” he says. “An awful lot can change from one season to the next, and we have got to be looking ahead thinking we can challenge. We have signed a couple of new players this season, maybe there will be more in summer, a club like this will always be trying to improve the squad and it’s something you learn to adapt to.  Sometimes it takes some players longer to settle, that’s the nature of a club this big, but it’s not about individuals it’s about the team gelling together.”

 Carrick sees no reason why that should not happen under David Moyes, even if he describes much of what has happened since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement as deflating. “The league position is disappointing, though the Champions League form has been good and hopefully still is,” he says. “We didn’t know quite what to expect with the managerial change, it was unpredictable how it would go, but we never expected to be in this position in the league at this stage of the season.

 “It is frustrating because our away form has been good, but certain games at home have been quite damaging. I don’t really know why that should be, we’ve been playing at Old Trafford for a long time. There is a certain character needed to handle the pressure of playing there, but the majority of us have been doing it for a number of years so I don’t think that can be used to explain it.”

The most obvious change is the manager, though if Moyes is going wrong Carrick is unable to see quite how. “It is hard to compare, they are two different people, two different personalities, but they both have the same work ethic, enthusiasm and will to win,” he says. “The [new] manager has different ideas of how to play the game in certain areas, as you would expect, but he is trying to implement things he wants over a period of time.

 “He did not try and change it all at once because at that point there was not an awful lot wrong, we had won the league and looked strong.  But as players we haven’t played well enough at times, and the home results against West Brom, Southampton and Fulham were not what we have come to expect. There is no place to hide at Old Trafford if it is not going well.

 “You are there to be shot at, and you have to deal with it. We have had some disappointing results, there’s no getting away from that, but the season is not dead. We are still in the Champions League, still in the game against Bayern. It is a big challenge, and if the game goes the same way as the home leg it will be very tiring, but we are professionals and we still have a responsibility to win games for this club. That is what we are about, and although Bayern have some terrific talent, we have shown there is a way for us to accommodate that and stop them.”   The  possibility exists, after Chelsea’s defeat at PSG, that if United can pull off a result in Munich they could be England’s only representatives in the last four of the Champions League. A slender possibility perhaps, but the United of old would not necessarily have been daunted by having to beat Bayern on their own ground, and just occasionally on their travels Moyes and his players have looked capable of clicking back into the old routine.

 “It doesn’t bother me at all who else reaches the last four,” says Carrick, who was speaking at a photo-shoot for  Puma evoPOWER football boots. “All I think about is that after the season we have had we could be sitting here in a few weeks still in the Champions League. That is what we are aiming for. Sometimes we have thought we were on our way back and it has not quite happened, but we are not far away. Because of what we have been used to at this club you always look to win whatever you are involved in. It has been a frustrating season but we have shown potential at times, and we know we have the potential to come back strongly.”

 Perhaps understandably, given United’s situation in the table, Wednesday’s trip to Bavaria is in danger of overshadowing  Saturday’s league game at St James’ Park, which for a Newcastle-born player like Carrick would be a shame. “I made my full debut for West Ham at Newcastle and I will never forget that,” he recalls. “You are talking about a ground where I used to go as a fan most weeks, watching players like Peter Beardsley, Andy Cole and Lee Clark, so that is a huge memory.

 “I actually had the chance to sign for Newcastle before I went to West Ham; I didn’t in the end because they had got rid of their reserve team. There were a few clubs interested but I liked what West Ham had to offer and never regretted signing for them, I loved it straight away.”