- Michael Carrick announced a permanent Manchester United head coach
- The rise and resurrection of Danny Welbeck
- Links back to United
Manchester United have officially announced Michael Carrick as the club’s permanent head coach ahead of the 2026/27 season.
He took charge of his first official game as permanent manager against Brighton, following an impressive interim spell that has yielded 11 wins, three draws, and just two defeats.
United would win 3-0, finally overcoming their recent struggles against Brighton, with Bruno Fernandes registering his record-breaking 21st assist of the season.
In his first match as permanent head coach, Carrick will come up against former United teammate Danny Welbeck, whom he famously labelled a “real talent” back in 2012 when the pair were both starring under Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.
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Danny Welbeck’s Man Utd spell
Every young kid from Manchester dreams of representing Manchester United at some point in their life.
One of the biggest clubs in world football, the pull of Old Trafford is irresistible, and very few are capable of turning away from it. Under Ferguson, that pull became even stronger, with United dominating not only England but Europe too.
Welbeck is one of the select few who can say they achieved that dream, having represented his boyhood club 142 times and scored 29 goals.
During the 2011/12 season, Welbeck looked like he had the world at his feet. Just 21 years old, he finished the campaign as United’s second top scorer in all competitions, netting 12 goals in 39 matches, as United surrendered the Premier League title in devastating fashion following Sergio Aguero’s iconic stoppage-time winner.
It was midway through 2012 when Carrick said: “I am a massive fan of Danny’s. Ever since I first saw him I have expected big things of him.
“He has had a terrific couple of years. People were looking at him when we signed Van Persie saying, ‘Where is his position, where is he going to fit in?’ But he showed he is still a major part of it.
“We have got so much strength, but he has been terrific. If he keeps performing like that he is only going to get better.
“He can create and score goals, he can play different positions, he can play wide, he can play up top – he is a real talent.
“He is modest too, what you’d expect coming through the ranks at United. The manager sets standards for the young lads and Danny doesn’t get carried away and this won’t change him at all.
“He just gets back and starts working hard again, and that is what he does best – that is one of his biggest assets.”
Unfortunately for Welbeck, hard work alone would not be enough, as he scored just twice across 40 appearances during the entirety of the 2012/13 season.
Most of those appearances, however, came from the bench, with Welbeck managing just 2162 minutes overall—the equivalent of roughly 24 full matches.
The 2013/14 campaign saw Welbeck improve again, scoring 10 goals in 36 appearances, but when Louis van Gaal arrived at United, the Dutchman sanctioned the striker’s sale to Arsenal, believing he did not score enough goals and preferring to bring Radamel Falcao into the club instead.
Arsenal exploits and rebirth at Brighton
The last 12 years of Welbeck’s career have often been a gruelling battle, with the striker repeatedly missing significant stretches through injury.
Before joining Brighton in the summer of 2020, Welbeck had suffered seven separate injuries, keeping him sidelined for a combined 767 days.
He officially departed Arsenal in the summer of 2019 after making 126 appearances and scoring 32 goals.
That was the moment many people wrote Welbeck off. He joined a struggling Watford side, failed to make a real impact, and scored just three goals in 22 appearances as the club were relegated to the Championship.
But joining Brighton on a free transfer on 18 October 2020 proved exactly what Welbeck needed to reignite his career during the latter years of it.
A month shy of turning 30 when he arrived, Brighton moved away from their typical ‘buy young, sell high’ recruitment strategy to sign Welbeck.
Out of the 20 players the Seagulls signed during the 2020/21 season, only Adam Lallana was older, while only Joel Veltman came remotely close to Welbeck’s age.
The other 17 players are still younger now than Welbeck was when he signed.
Yet abandoning that recruitment model is something that has repaid Tony Bloom’s side tenfold in the long run.
Welbeck has now featured in 200 matches for Brighton, scored 51 goals—the third most for the club post-1980—netted 13 goals in the current Premier League campaign—the joint-most by any Brighton player—and helped guide the Seagulls into Europe for just the second time in their history.
Now, he is remembered as a genuine modern-day Brighton great. In a BBC article published late last year, a selection of Brighton supporters gave their thoughts on the striker’s resurgence.
One fan said:
“Danny is easily one of the best players we’ve signed. Getting him for free was a great piece of business as he’s now our top scorer in the Premier League and he’s been a great player to have in and around the squad.”
Return on the cards?
Due to Welbeck’s red wine form, the Cabernet Sauvignon-esque striker has once again found himself linked with a return to Manchester. Put simply, he adores Manchester United.
Despite scoring against United eight times since leaving the club in 2014, Welbeck has never had a bad word to say about his boyhood side. In a recent Premier League Q&A, when asked which match in football history he would most like to play in, his answer was not a Champions League final or famous international clash.
Instead, he chose Manchester City vs Queens Park Rangers in 2012, purely to stop Sergio Aguero’s iconic title-winning goal.
“I would have slide tackled him out of play,” Welbeck proclaimed. “He’s not scoring. He’s getting lifted. And then United win the league.”
But whilst the affection between player and club clearly remains, the prospect of Welbeck dancing beneath the Old Trafford floodlights once more may simply have drifted away with time.
At 35 years old, Welbeck’s career is gradually entering its closing stages, despite still being one of the finest English strikers in the country.
United seriously considered bringing back their former number 19 last summer, as they also did under ten Hag, but an official move never materialised.
Supporters would undoubtedly welcome Welbeck back with open arms. Any player willing to fight for the badge, whilst loving the club as deeply as those in the stands, will always be cherished.
But perhaps there is something more poetic about letting Welbeck’s story conclude where it was rebuilt; on the south coast, beneath the Brighton lights, where a 29-year-old was handed a second lease of life in the beautiful game.
