The one that got away – Carrick returns to Tyneside with Man Utd

It is a journey that Michael Carrick won’t forget.

The Geordie had been driving up to the North East back in January when he was offered the Manchester United job until the end of the season.

Yet Carrick was not about to hog the limelight as he attended a family event alongside, among others, close friend Chris Hood.

“It doesn’t shock me, but nothing was mentioned,” Hood said.

“Not one of us knew even though it was bandied around and there were plenty of people around him who were thinking: ‘Will it be him?’

“But Michael was there for his family and to see his friends. He was there to make the most of that precious time.”

Such time is now in short supply, of course.

Carrick is very much a Manchester United man as he prepares to take his side to St James’ Park for the first time as a manager on Wednesday night.

But the boyhood Newcastle United supporter has not forgotten his roots.

Take the legendary Wallsend Boys Club, for instance.

Carrick followed in the footsteps of Alan Shearer, Peter Beardsley and Steve Bruce as one of a staggering 97 players from the club who went on to become first-team professionals.

But the ‘Boyza’, where Carrick spent countless hours honing his skills, had to be demolished in 2012 due to damage caused by high winds.

It meant a generation of youngsters in the area missed out on the chance to use the indoor facility like Carrick did in his formative years.

However, funding provided by Carrick’s foundation has enabled the club to employ a general manager, John Percival.

Percival, in turn, has been instrumental in raising the capital for a new community hub, which was built in 2023.

This is the tangible legacy of Carrick’s bond with the area as chairman Steve Dale explained.

“Michael is still intrinsically linked because he credits the boys’ club with so much that was positive about his childhood,” he said.

“He was motivated to try and do that himself through the proceeds he raised at his testimonial. That’s why he created his own foundation.

Carrick’s love of the game was quickly apparent when he was profiled on the BBC’s Saturday morning children’s television show Live & Kicking in 1995.

Seated in front of the camera in a Newcastle shirt and surrounded by posters of his idols, including Beardsley, viewers might have felt he was destined to one day represent his boyhood club.

Newcastle had even attempted to pull out one or two stops to convince Carrick to join.

Beardsley presented Carrick with a cake on his 13th birthday at St James’ Park while the youngster was invited to play in the prestigious Milk Cup youth tournament a year early.

However, that trip to Northern Ireland left a lasting impression for all the wrong reasons after a few of the players ‘borrowed’ a Mini and drove it around a car park.

Carrick ultimately felt more comfortable at West Ham – a long way from home – after spending time touring a host of suitors across the country.

Although local talents like Lee Clark, Steve Howey, Steve Watson and Robbie Elliott had made the breakthrough into Newcastle’s first-team squad, at the time the club did not even have a reserve side.

By contrast, at West Ham, there was a clear pathway – and Carrick never looked back.

Times have changed at Newcastle since then.

Sean Longstaff, Elliot Anderson and Lewis Miley are just some of the midfielders from the North East who have come through the club’s academy system in the past few years alone.

Longstaff made 214 appearances for Newcastle before moving to Leeds United last summer, while Anderson was only sold to Nottingham Forest in 2024 due to the club’s desperate need to raise funds to avoid breaching profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

Miley is still front and centre, however, and remains the academy’s crown jewel.

The 19-year-old was even symbolically handed the captain’s armband by team-mate Kieran Trippier in Newcastle’s win against PSV Eindhoven a few weeks ago.

Head coach Eddie Howe said at the weekend that Miley had “all the talent in the world”.

The challenge now is for the academy to unearth and nurture several more like him in the years to come following a period of huge change behind the scenes.

“The facilities have dramatically improved,” Howe said. “In my visits to the academy now it’s unrecognisable from the building we first saw, so that in itself will help the players, who are now being looked after much better than they were.

“In terms of all the off-field things and psychology, there has been an array of things that have been improved.

“They have had different managers there with the 23s, which has been a little stop-start, but hopefully we can get some continuity for them in that sense. We need to expose them to the best coaching possible because I’m a big believer in their development through coaching.