Rafa Benitez is quite a draw it seems and Newcastle has apparently persuaded Michael to join his home town club Newcastle United before Jose Mourinho stepped in and ordered Manchester United to give Michael a contract extension to keep him on board.
Michael signed his contract extension of one year on 9th June.
But of course the strange thing is that Mourinho didn’t use Carrick in the first team until last night’s 3-1 Cup win at Northampton Town and Michael scored a fabulous goal to put the Red Devils 1-0 ahead in that game.
Michael Carrick – close to joining Newcastle in the summer
The news is in the Mail and Michael was due to sign on at Newcastle as a free agent and we can only assume that Newcastle agreed to meet what would have been Michael’s high wages.
Michael was born in Wallsend and played for the famous Wallsend Boys club and he also played for England Boys Clubs before he joined West Ham in 1997 and went to play for the England U-18 and U21 Youth sides and he has 34 full caps for England.
He stayed at West Ham until 2004 when he joined Tottenham for a couple of years before he signed on at Manchester United in 2006 – he’s played 423 times for the Red Devils with 24 goals.
Michael is 35 and he has a one year extension to his contract so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Benitez could offer him a deal at Newcastle next summer – Michael turns 36 in July – depending on Newcastle’s situation at that time.
He would have been a tremendous signing for us in the summer and is one of a number of potential signings that got away – so to speak.
Comments welcome.
14 comments so far
jimmysmith
Sep 22, 2016 at 10:32 PM
Comment #1Would have provided a competitor and mentor to Shelvey in that deep lying playmaker role, and have been great in a rotation. Shame for him and his Da’ too. Would’ve been nice for them both I suppose.
martoon
Sep 22, 2016 at 10:35 PM
Comment #2Hmm not sure I believe this one I’m sure Carrick was quoted as saying he he wouldnnever play for Newcastle while Ashley owned the club.
jimmysmith
Sep 22, 2016 at 10:55 PM
Comment #3Ashley appears to be in remission, and players tend to join clubs for the manager and the money. Carrick would also have personal reasons to be interested. Very sad for us to have missed out on such a quality local born and raised player when he opted to go to West Ham.
lochinvar
Sep 22, 2016 at 11:18 PM
Comment #4Can’t see it happening – just imagine if “Carricks” shirt ended up sponsored by “Greggs” ( if they were to take over from Wonga )
Could end up as a bit of a bun fight …
Small World
Sep 22, 2016 at 11:32 PM
Comment #5lochinvar // Sep 22, 2016 at 11:18 PM
A classic 🙂 . I suspect a lot of folks reading this just aren’t going to get it
Sav
Sep 23, 2016 at 12:04 AM
Comment #6Sorry for being hard-nosed but its a little late in the day, not to say long in the tooth for Michael Carrick at 35 or 36 to be making sentimental journeys back hyem to Newcastle. Lets face it, its hardly Alan bloody Shearer revisited, is it. We need scrappers now and summer we will be building for the future. MC is welcome to buy his season ticket and a rattle and come and support the club like the rest of us. God knows, he can well afford it.
Having said all that, if Rafa says he wants him, well that’s cool, right?
expatmag
Sep 23, 2016 at 12:15 AM
Comment #7LOCHINAR
Then it is a good job ee didnt sign Ivans brother, Mark Toneys as well. That would be a problem for Carrick/Greggs spondorship……lol
JP...from The Rock
Sep 23, 2016 at 12:26 AM
Comment #8Past it! He’ll be 36 next summer ffs.
ilovetoon8788
Sep 23, 2016 at 5:41 AM
Comment #9Only worrying thing is we have already lost 3 games this season. Title winning sides can lose no more than 5 or 6 max in the entire season.
Another couple of defeats from now till end of season and we are on par) course for play offs only. And there is no more guarantee of promotion.
No more “defeat is a wake up call” excuse anymore. It’s now strictly business.
Jail for Ashley
Sep 23, 2016 at 5:51 AM
Comment #10It’s a bit of a moot point as Man U thought him good enough to keep him on and so he is not here. Personally I think it would have been a great signing, a very old, successful and experienced winner for the relatively young squad, a great swansong for a local lad. But it’s not to be.
Jail for Ashley
Sep 23, 2016 at 5:52 AM
Comment #11*to learn from
Lindisfarne
Sep 23, 2016 at 6:51 AM
Comment #12If the League table was comprised of least losses / least draws / least goals conceded, it would look like this:
Huddersfield 1
Norwich 1
Birmingham 1
Fulham 1
Brentford 2
Brighton 2
Reading 2
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2
Ipswich 2
Aston Villa 2
Newcastle United 3
Barnsley 3
Bristol City 3
Sheffield Wednesday 3
Nottingham Forest 3
Burton 3
Leeds 4
Queens Park Rangers 4
Derby 4
Rotherham 4
Wigan 5
Blackburn 5
Cardiff 5
Preston 6
Griff-toon
Sep 23, 2016 at 6:52 AM
Comment #13Ilovetoon
I think it is better to see where we are relative to the others in the league table to determine how we are doing rather than focus on how many games lost.
sing in the corner
Sep 23, 2016 at 7:56 AM
Comment #14A year is a long time when you’re a footballer aged 35-36.
If we’d signed him in the summer on a one year deal, fair enough. But not next summer. Right guy,definitely wrong time then.