United draw with Fulham confirms the problem runs deeper than Carrick

An 89th minute equalizer at Craven Cottage might look like a minor detail, but for Michael Carrick's Manchester United, it sums up an entire crisis. The 1-1 draw against Fulham, with the late goal scored by Matheus Cunha, leaves the team with just five points from a possible fifteen, matching their worst Premier League start alongside another forgettable campaign. And the question hanging over Old Trafford is no longer whether Carrick is a good coach, but whether anyone else could do better with what he has at his disposal.

Because that's the real problem. Carrick arrived as the man who rescued last season from the disaster left behind by Ruben Amorim after fourteen miserable months, and he was rewarded with a two-year contract (with an option for a third) after guiding the team into the Champions League. But the very club that gave him the job he'd always wanted then told him he'd have to do it with one hand tied behind his back.

Think of it this way: it's like being handed the keys to a house with a leaking roof, broken pipes and damp walls, but only being given a paintbrush to "fix it." That's the reality at United right now, a club that has spent years piling up mistakes under the ownership of the Glazer family and minority shareholder Jim Ratcliffe.

A transfer window that failed him completely

With Casemiro's departure (a free transfer to Inter Miami) and Manuel Ugarte out of the plans (and also injured), Carrick asked for clear reinforcements in midfield. Elliot Anderson and Mateus Fernandes were his top targets. Neither arrived: Anderson moved from Nottingham Forest to Manchester City for 116 million pounds, and Fernandes chose Tottenham over United for 85 million. The club also looked into Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães, of Newcastle, but ruled out both deals on price; they ended up at Tottenham and Arsenal, respectively. Instead, United brought in Youri Tielemans (35 million, a release clause from Aston Villa), Andrey Santos (48 million, from Chelsea, with just 13 starts last season) and Carlos Baleba (65 million, from Brighton), the latter still yet to make his debut because of an ankle injury. In total, 150 million pounds of investment, less than half of what Tottenham spent (315 million) or Chelsea (348 million), and a third of what City invested (451 million). Even Ipswich (190 million) and Hull City (151 million), both freshly promoted, outspent United.

United had also wanted a backup left back for 31-year-old Luke Shaw, and that need went unaddressed too.

An aging squad without enough reinforcements

The club's official line is that Ratcliffe's regime, with Omar Berrada as CEO and Jason Wilcox as sporting director, is trying to clean up the finances after years of overspending. And there's some truth to that: over the last decade United spent 1.8 billion pounds on transfers and wages, behind only Chelsea and City, with sky-high salaries for players like David De Gea, Alexis Sánchez, Jadon Sancho, Casemiro and Marcus Rashford. Today, only Rashford still earns that kind of money (325,000 pounds a week).

The result of so much past waste and so much present frugality is a squad in urgent need of a rebuild. Only Aston Villa (28.8 years average) has fielded an older starting eleven than United (28.3) this season. There's no real competition for Shaw and Diogo Dalot at fullback, only two healthy, experienced center backs (Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martínez), a midfield lacking both tempo and creativity, and a forward line thrown off balance by Rashford's return, who has gone five games without a goal or an assist since coming back from his 18-month loan spell at Villa and Barcelona.

So even if Carrick lost his job tomorrow and were replaced by a more experienced manager, or by a rising name from the Premier League like Fabian Hürzeler (Brighton) or Keith Andrews (Brentford), the underlying problem would remain untouched.

The players simply aren't good enough, and the club isn't doing enough to fix that. Of all the impossible jobs in English football right now, managing Manchester United is among the toughest.