Manchester United is finally looking like it will make a call: Michael Carrick stays on the bench. CEO Omar Berrada and sporting director Jason Wilcox will officially propose to Sir Jim Ratcliffe this week to make the appointment permanent.

He was brought in in January, when United were seventh and under Rúben Amorim already looked like a team in freefall. Six months later, that same team is third, in the Champions League and has the most points won in the Premier League since the moment Carrick arrived (10 wins, 3 draws, 2 defeats).

The 3:2 victory over Liverpool, which confirmed the European season, was clearly the final argument. After that win, Kobbie Mainoo, the scorer of the winning goal, said the players „would die for him on the pitch". Similar messages came from Amad Diallo, Matheus Cunha and Casemiro.

United's management was genuinely vetting Andoni Iraola and Unai Emery. But Carrick is already in the planning meetings at Carrington, and everyone on the inside sees this as the inevitable outcome.

The question that remains open is less about results and more about capacity: can a man who has never run a big club hold the level when summer brings new players, new expectations and the first defeats that always arrive? Middlesbrough isn't Old Trafford.

For the supporters that may not matter. Carrick already has 464 appearances for the club, five English titles and a Champions League as a player. His loyalty is guaranteed. The result over half a season - too.

If Ratcliffe signs off on the proposal - and everything points to him doing so - United enters the summer with a clarity it hasn't had in years. And that may be the one thing it most needed.