With his eleventh season as a Manchester United player drawing to a close, Michael Carrick has announced that he’s been granted a testimonial by the club.
A special game to mark the United career of the veteran midfielder, who moved to Old Trafford from Tottenham in the summer of 2006, will take place on June 4 between a Carrick All-Star XI and a Manchester United ’08 XI.
#MUFC are delighted to announce that @Carras16’s testimonial match will be played at Old Trafford on 4 June. More: https://t.co/uFHlFwa4k3 pic.twitter.com/m4Lqqf3LpH
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 2, 2017
As explained by the man himself, the Carrick All-Star team will be made up of some of the best players he has played against throughout his career, whereas (as their name suggests) the Man United ’08 XI will be made up of players from the club’s European Cup-winning 2007/08 squad.
“I’m asking everyone if they can play,” Carrick said when asked about the ’08 XI. “I can’t guarantee that everyone will be able to play but I’m pretty sure it’ll be most of the team.”
The fact that Carrick had seemingly invited “everyone” from that squad understandably got the United faithful talking. The potential return of Cristiano Ronaldo, albeit for one night only, was a great source of excitement, as was the prospect of seeing Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs taking to the Old Trafford field once again.
But what about Carlos Tevez?
While his work ethic and knack of scoring timely goals during his time with United made him a firm favourite with the club’s supporters, his decision to move across town to Manchester City in 2009 saw his reputation tarnished with an overwhelming majority of them. Surely he wouldn’t be making an appearance? Well, Carrick wasn’t ruling it out…
“I had contact with Carlos before he went to China and he said he would have loved to played but didn’t know where he would be playing so he didn’t know,” Carrick explained.
“That’s part of the reason I can’t confirm it’s the whole team because some of the lads are doing different things.”
With an appearance from Tevez still on the cards, plenty of United fans were making their feelings known.
https://twitter.com/OneLifeMUFC/status/837668109905506304
No, just no, don't wanna see Tevez at @carras16 testimonial #MUFC pic.twitter.com/7WrhqSrVNi
— Emil Manninen (@EmilManninen) March 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/thedoveman1982/status/837595273392189440
If Tevez and Hargreaves come, they can be the ball boys!
Just saying! 😏Carrick Testimonial #MUFC
— Fletch™ (@FletchTM) March 2, 2017
Fuck tevez off though for this testimonial 👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻
— Micky (@Micky_Mackney) March 2, 2017
https://twitter.com/AchtungJono/status/837315577811193857
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