Manchester United have had an eerily similar start to the season as they did under Erik ten Hag's final season in charge. The Red Devils have currently only won twice in ten games across all competitions. By this point in the 24/25 season, the club had only three wins. 

Even in the 23/24 season, which was Ten Hag's second season in charge, the club only had four wins across all competitions by this point. However, the manner of the defeats under Ten Hag is what creates similarities with Michael Carrick.

Both Ten Hag and Carrick had very successful first seasons/stints in charge, playing a very compact and counter-attacking style of play. Yet when they try to overhaul the style of play, they struggle to have a successful system, let alone match the successes of their first seasons. 

Laurie Whitwell's recent interview with Ten Hag has been a damning indictment of the INEOS regime and may offer insight into what Michael Carrick could be dealing with. 

Scott McTominay is one of the best academy stories of the last decade. A player who was not seen as one of the most talented members of his age group went on to play 255 competitive games for Manchester United and was part of the Carabao Cup- and FA Cup-winning side under Erik ten Hag. 

Despite not being a guaranteed starter under Ten Hag like he was under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, he was a key squad member who would pop up with huge moments like opening the scoring against Liverpool in the 4-3 victory in the FA Cup. 

He was sold in the summer of 2024 to Napoli for around £25 million, and the Scot has not looked back. Not just one of the best players for Napoli, but he has been one of the best players in Serie A fullstop. He was in the Serie A Player of the Year team for two seasons in a row, won the league's Player of the Year in the 24/25 season and was also nominated for the Ballon d'Or that year. 

It is no surprise that, given his replacement was Manuel Ugarte, whom Ten Hag sparingly used in his time, the Dutchman did not want to lose McTominay. 

When speaking to Whitwell, he said: “In Ibiza, we agreed. I said, ‘No selling Scott McTominay. We would go aligned in the transfer window. I make an argument, a reason: we don’t have scoring abilities. Scott brings scoring abilities and great mentality.

“He has United in all his veins. So when they bring up the subject, ‘No’. And in the end they sold him. I got, of course, very embarrassed and disappointed.”

While Ten Hag has every right to feel aggrieved, in the context of the time, Manchester United needed to sell players to be aligned with PSR rules so they could reinvest in the squad.

Therefore, the sale of McTominay was needed in that regard. The issue with the overall deal is that the replacement, Manuel Ugarte, was neither a player the manager wanted nor a player similar to, or at the level of, McTominay. 

However, the issue with INEOS in this story is not the fact that they sold McTominay, but the line where Ten Hag claimed he agreed with INEOS not to sell the midfielder, but they went against him in the end. 

While Ten Hag's tenure has shown that the manager should not have full control of transfers, this line showed more evidence of how INEOS fail to live up to promises, and their lack of communication only emphasises the problems at the club. It certainly did not help that the signing of Ugarte helped PSG fund a move to Joao Neves, who was available, albeit for a huge fee at the time from Benfica. 

Given the comments by Lisandro Martinez recently, and the previous expectations Luke Shaw, Harry Maguire and Bruno Fernandes each had about the summer, it just paints a toxic picture of the environment at Old Trafford.