How talking about Man Utd's cycle of doom became an industry

Manchester United. More a high-volume content farm than a football club these days.

Michael Carrick's starring role in what has become one of the nation's favourite soap operas has been extended for at least another week, with the 45-year-old set to be in charge for Saturday's visit to Chelsea.

Good news - you'd think - for Carrick. But even better news for Amazon's All or Nothing camera crews, who have been given "unprecedented" access to document the behind-the-scenes goings-on at Old Trafford this season.

United fans will presumably be relieved when the football resumes on Saturday, if only to break up the constant stream of opinion for 90 minutes.

But while the wall-to-wall reporting of one of the world's biggest football clubs is hardly new, the unrelenting coverage from former players is a growing phenomenon.

It is easier to name the Manchester United legends who don't have a platform from which they scrutinise the club's every move than those that do - and it begs the question whether the club's demise has been industrialised into a content-creating machine.

'It doesn't really help in any way'

Whether supporters feel comments from ex-players are damaging or not differs from fan to fan, but what cannot be denied is how difficult it is to escape their views.

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville provided scathing on-air commentary during United's 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth last Sunday, before conducting a post-match podcast in the Old Trafford gantry in which he accused some of their players of being unprofessional.

"There's a couple of them... I live in Manchester and they're not that professional, some of them," Neville stated.

"I've got no time for them. There's a few of them that don't go to bed at the right time. Don't eat the right things. Don't think about Manchester United every single minute of every single day."

But it's digital and streaming platforms that are re-defining a new age of analysis.

Neville launched The Overlap in 2021, and its success across video and podcast platforms has seen the channel become one of the most influential outlets in sports media.

On Tuesday, Wayne Rooney appeared on Neville's Manchester United-dedicated YouTube channel 'Stick to United' where he said Carrick's players "need a firework up their a***".

Neville has since hosted his own The Overlap show where he said managers sometimes need to be sacked "for their own good", while ex-United captain Roy Keane said Carrick and his backroom staff are "lucky boys" to still be in jobs.

Neville acquired a network of YouTube channels from United influencer Mark Goldbridge last summer, which has significantly increased the channel's coverage of the club.

Largely known for viral clips of his expletive-laden rants during streamed 'watchalongs' of their matches, Goldbridge's YouTube channels had amassed more than 3.7million subscribers.

Goldbridge - whose real name is Brent di Cesare - now co-hosts the 'Stick to United' show with Rooney, the club's record goalscorer.

But Neville, Rooney and Keane are far from the only ones setting the agenda.

Class of '92 pair Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt co-host their own podcast called 'The Good, The Bad & The Football'.

Before last season's Manchester derby at Old Trafford - Carrick's first home game in charge - Butt said City striker Erling Haaland would "pick Lisandro Martinez up and run with him", while Scholes said the Norway forward would "throw him in the net" after scoring.

United won the game 2-0, with Martinez putting in a stellar performance.

Asked about Scholes' comments after the match, the Argentine defender said: "Honestly, he can say whatever he wants. I told him already, if he wants to say something to me, he can come to wherever he wants. To my house, wherever. I don't care."

Asked during Thursday's news conference how he deals with the 'noise' from former team-mates and ex-players, Carrick said he avoids it as best he can.

"I don't see it really. I see the things that I need to see," he added.

"I don't look for it - it doesn't really help in any way.

"I've said it before, I care about what the supporters think. I care about what it feels like in the stadium, and them travelling to games for us, to come and see us and support us. I care about what we give them, and what we offer them, and what they see. I genuinely don't take any notice of anything else."