After the departure of Ruben Amorim on January 5th, the Manchester United board quickly assured fans that they will bring in an interim manager for the remainder of the season who understood the club. Former United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer appeared to be the frontrunner for the role but, as of recently, it seems that Michael Carrick has impressed the board and will likely be in the United dugout alongside former England Assistant Manager, Steve Holland, for the Manchester derby on Saturday, 17th January to be immediately tested by title Pep Guardiola’s title contenders.

Michael Carrick’s short but fairly impressive resume built at a Middlesbrough side who were in considerable trouble before his appointment brought them into consistent contention for the Championship play-offs. Although often falling short by the end of the season, Carrick’s Middlesbrough played exciting, attacking football similar to what had been provided by Ruben Amorim. His tactics guided Middlesbrough to the upper end of the league table, but constant sales of their best players (for example, Latte Lath to Atlanta and Morgan Rogers to Aston Villa) prevented him from taking that next step with the Championship club.

This will be Michael Carrick’s biggest managerial test and could very well make or break his career and could derail his future in football management, but the challenge appears to be too tempting for him to turn down.

A club in a surprisingly similar situation to Manchester United, Celtic, have struggled to find a long-term replacement for Brendan Rodgers after the disastrous appointment of Wilfried Nancy proved to be a foolish and unnecessarily experiment by the board in such a highly competitive Scottish Premiership season. Nancy’s short reign of 33 days (although it probably felt a lot longer for Celtic’s most faithful) ended on January 5th after a series of embarrassing defeats, including an inexcusable loss against 10th placed St. Mirren in the Scottish League Cup final.

Fortunately, the board have decided to exercise caution and have brought Martin O’Neill back at the helm for the remainder of the season to try and salvage their title hopes after falling six points adrift to leaders Hearts. Many Celtic fans will still be looking for key members of the board to resign with calls to ‘Sack the Board’ still being made in spite of their 4-0 victory over Dundee United this week.

A surprising departure of Real Madrid’s Xabi Alonso after he reportedly no longer had Real Madrid’s President Florentino Perez’s favour after a disappointing defeat to Hansi Flick’s Barcelona in the Supercopa final in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Alonso’s inability to convince his players to show grace in defeat to Barcelona with Kylian Mbappe leading the team away from performing a guard of honour for the victors.

In spite of his strong 71% win rate and only being 4 points behind Barcelona in the league, Alonso had somehow lost faith from the club’s president and from his players. Could this be indicative of future problems to come for Real Madrid as the manager’s struggle against player power seems to be a struggle against Perez as well? Or, has this stint showcased Xabi Alonso’s inability to manage world class players and their respective egos?

With few names coming out for the vacant role, there will be plenty of speculation to follow over the coming weeks of who will take on world football’s biggest job.