Carr getting started now

MICHAEL CARRICK was in the enviable position of being linked with three new jobs in the space of a week.

That is what happens when you are a young manager who’s taken a Championship club, Boro, from third bottom to third top in five months.

Football takes notice when you have won 16 of your first 23 games, with automatic promotion to the Premier League within reach.

Tottenham, West Ham and Crystal Palace – who went with stop-gap Roy Hodgson before a summer switch – were the clubs cited with keeping an eye on Carrick (below).

More will be added to the list in the coming months, even if Boro end up in the play-offs, or having another crack at promotion next season. For now Carrick is in the right place.

But in the future he should be looking to Manchester United as his next destination.

Or even newly rich Newcastle United, his hometown club.

There are perils in automatically seeing trophy-laden playing heroes as shoo-ins to return as head coach. Look at Steven Gerrard, who flew high winning a title with Rangers, was supposedly next in line for Liverpool, before finding life at Aston Villa problematic.

Carrick is demonstrating all the attributes to suggest he will have a strong shot to succeed – after what could be a few years waiting – Erik ten Hag or Eddie Howe.

He has modernised Boro. They are a hard-pressing, slick unit – and they play on the front foot.

Carrick had a 500-plus game playing career learning from the best – Sir Alex Ferguson, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho.

As a rookie coach, Mourinho brought him on to the Old Trafford staff, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave him a bigger role – and he won his two games as caretaker.

Carrick is level-headed, seems unflappable and plays down expectations around his hardworking Boro side, yet he’s working a miracle on Teesside. One day he’ll have the pick of the two big Uniteds.