Carrick: Signings Give Us Edge

Michael Carrick has told United Review that Jose Mourinho's swift and decisive transfer business could give the Reds an edge in these early stages of the Premier League season.

The new Reds manager clearly identified four key positions where he wanted to strengthen the team and the club impressively wrapped up the signings of Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba before last weekend's big kick-off at Bournemouth.

With other clubs seemingly still to complete their business as the 31 August deadline looms large, Carrick feels United have possibly gained an advantage by recruiting in such a focused manner. 

In an exclusive interview that appears in Friday night's match programme for the clash with Southampton, the 35-year-old midfielder says: "It’s certainly been a good window with the four top players coming in. 

"I think they are all going to add hugely to the squad. For me, the key thing is it is done and dusted now and there is not going to be that speculation all the way up until the deadline. Our main targets are in, it seems, and we are a squad now – this is what we’re going to go forward achieving things with.

"I think, in an ideal world, you want your squad ready as early as possible and settled. We’ve managed to do that and hopefully it’s going to make a massive difference. It’s a really terrific squad in terms of quality and depth now."

Elsewhere in an broad-ranging interview that reflects on his 10 seasons at United and looks forward to his 11th as part of the new regime, Carrick agrees with former colleague Gary Neville's view that Pogba and Ibrahimovic's huge personalities will prove to be beneficial in the dressing room.

"They’re top players really on a world level who are going to bring that confidence and belief you need to play here and achieve things," adds the midfielder. "It’s what we’ve had for so many years, that confidence to go into big games knowing the end goal is to win trophies. They have managed to do that themselves and it can rub off on the younger boys who maybe haven’t won as much yet."

Credit: Manutd.com