Silvestre, Rooney, and Valencia Ready to Support Carrick at Manchester United

Michael Carrick will not be short of familiar faces if the call ever comes from Manchester United’s boardroom.

The current United manager, already surrounded by a modern backroom team and a revamped hierarchy, has a growing queue of former team-mates publicly declaring they would drop everything to work alongside him at Old Trafford. The latest to nail his colours to the mast is Mikael Silvestre – and he is not talking about cones and bibs on the training pitch.

Silvestre eyes the boardroom, not the dugout

Silvestre, a veteran of nine decorated seasons at United, has made it clear his future lies upstairs rather than on the touchline. The former France defender ended his playing career in 2014 and briefly flirted with the coaching pathway, earning his badges, but his ambitions quickly shifted.

He moved into the executive game instead, taking on the director of football role at Rennes, the club where his professional journey began, before most recently performing the same job at Romanian side CFR Cluj. That experience, coupled with a Masters in sports management, has shaped how he now views any potential return to Old Trafford.

Asked by Grosvenor Sport whether he and other former players would come back to work under Carrick, Silvestre’s answer was measured but telling.

He pointed out that Carrick’s coaching department is already well stocked and not in obvious need of extra bodies from the outside. The bench, in his view, is full. The boardroom, though, is another matter.

“I’d prefer the Director of Football role,” he said, referencing his time at Rennes and his academic background. It is a position currently held by Jason Wilcox, promoted into the job in the wake of Dan Ashworth’s departure, so there is no vacancy to fill. But Silvestre’s stance is clear: if United ever came calling for a senior football executive, he would listen.

He still feels the pull of the place. Silvestre plans to visit Manchester in September, watch United train and cast an eye over the club he represented for almost a decade. He admits he keeps tabs on all of his former sides, but United, he says, remain the one he follows most closely. Nine years at Old Trafford will do that.

Rooney’s “no-brainer” stance

Silvestre is not alone. Wayne Rooney has already nailed his colours to the Carrick mast.

The club’s all-time leading scorer has been out of management since his bruising spell at Plymouth Argyle in 2024 and has since stepped into punditry. Yet he has been unequivocal about the one job that would tempt him away from the studio.

Speaking in January, Rooney said that joining Carrick’s staff at United would be an automatic yes. No deliberation, no negotiation over the principle of it. If the invitation arrived, he would accept.

“Of course I would. It’s a no-brainer,” he said, while stressing he was not using the platform to beg for a job. For Rooney, the key decision for United remains the choice of manager – “the most important thing,” as he put it – but once that is settled, his willingness to assist Carrick is obvious.

For a coach still rebuilding his reputation after a difficult spell in the Championship, that kind of public commitment to one specific opportunity underlines how highly he regards both Carrick and the club.

Valencia would “go running”

If Rooney offers the voice of a local icon, Antonio Valencia brings the perspective of a captain who crossed continents to make United his footballing home.

Valencia shared a dressing room with Carrick for nine years and wore the armband himself. Now 40 and working in broadcasting with Telemundo Deportes during the World Cup, he has spoken in similarly emotional terms about a possible return.

He describes United as a club that “gave me so much” and a place where his family “was very happy.” The specifics of the role do not concern him. Coaching, ambassadorial, behind the scenes – he insists he would do “any role” at Old Trafford out of pure passion.

He believes the club is on the right track and talks positively about the current direction, but leaves no doubt about his readiness. If United called, he says, he would “go running.”

Carrick at the centre of a loyal circle

Taken together, these are not casual throwaway remarks. Silvestre, Rooney, Valencia – three players from different parts of the pitch and different phases of the Ferguson era – are all effectively placing themselves on standby for Carrick.

The manager already operates within a defined structure, with Wilcox overseeing football operations and a settled coaching group around him. There is no indication United are about to rip that up to make room for old friends.

What this does reveal, though, is the depth of loyalty Carrick commands inside that generation of United players. Former team-mates with serious careers of their own, in coaching, in punditry, in the boardroom, are openly stating they would reshape their futures to be part of his.

If United’s rebuild under Carrick gathers pace, and if the club ever decides it wants its old guard back in-house in meaningful roles, the manager will not have to look far for trusted allies. The question is no longer whether they would come.

It is whether the club will ever decide it needs them.