Bristol City should be making Michael Carrick approach ASAP - there are 3 clear reasons | OneFootball

The former Middlesbrough head coach is out of work following his departure from the Riverside Stadium.The former Middlesbrough head coach is out of wo

Bristol City are on the hunt for Liam Manning's successor, and former Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick is an intriguing option.

The Ashton Gate vacancy will undoubtedly be a highly attractive one for many coaches.

An excellent modernised stadium packed with loyal and vocal support, a talented playing squad, and a team that is fresh off the back of their first play-off finish since their promotion to the Championship a decade ago.

One option that is out there for Bristol City is former Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick, and Football League World - in no specific order - identifies three clear reasons as to why he would be a good fit to become the club's new boss.

3 Michael Carrick's track record of developing players

One of Carrick's hallmarks from his near three seasons as Middlesbrough head coach was his track record of developing and improving players.

Perhaps his two standout achievements in this regard is that of the impact he's had on the careers of Chuba Akpom and Hayden Hackney.

In the case of Akpom, his Middlesbrough career was on the verge of collapse prior to Carrick's arrival, but the Boro boss' decision to alter his role in the team from a centre-forward to an attacking midfielder was the catalyst for a 2022/23 Championship golden boot award.

Meanwhile, Hackney went from an academy graduate who'd been handed a surprise first-team opportunity under then-caretaker manager Leo Percovich in October 2022, to one of the division's best and most exciting young central midfielders under Carrick.

"I was gutted about Michael Carrick, to be honest. He’s done loads for me," the 22-year-old said in the wake of Carrick's sacking. "He put his trust in me to play the majority of games and helped me so much with everything really. I can’t thank him enough for that."

Those two aren't the only benefactors of his time on Teesside: Ben Doak, Finn Azaz, Emmanuel Latte Lath, Aidan Morris, Ryan Giles, Rav van den Berg, Cameron Archer and many others have played some of their best football of their respective careers under him.

As such, he could have a similar impact on a host of Bristol City talents, such as Scott Twine, Max Bird, Elijah Morrison, Josh Stokes and Sinclair Armstrong.

Prior to Carrick's arrival as Middlesbrough head coach, the club employed a rather scattergun approach to their recruitment.

This meant that Boro would miss just as much as they hit on the signings they made, leading to costly transfer mistakes and a real absence of a recruitment strategy.

That changed under Carrick, however. During his Riverside reign, the club made a clear shift towards the identification, recruitment, development and selling on of young players.

Boro became highly shrewd operators in the market, both at home and on the continent, bagging bargains and big profits on numerous players.

Huge profits were turned on the sales of Latte Lath and Morgan Rogers, whilst the impact he had on loan signings such as Cameron Archer and Aaron Ramsey saw both of those players earn big-money moves straight off the back of their loan spells with Boro.

Therefore, for a club like Bristol City who also prides itself on this element of self-sustainability through the development and selling on of players, Carrick's track record on Teesside in this field will surely tick a lot of boxes for the Robins.

1 Carrick could bring potent Middlesbrough attacking record to Bristol City

Another one of Carrick's trademarks from his time on Teesside was his ability to consistently field one of the Championship's most deadly attacking units.

Boro finished second in goals per game for the 2022/23 season with a 1.8 average, ranked sixth in 2023/24 with 1.5, before placing fourth in 2024/25 with a 1.4 average, per FotMob.

Compared to Bristol City's numbers from those same campaigns, and it makes for slightly frustrating, yet exciting reading if you're a Robins fan.

In 2022/23, City ranked 12th in the second tier in goals per game with a 1.2 average, 15th in 2023/24 with 1.2 once again, and then eighth in 2024/25 with 1.3, per FotMob.

Therefore, Carrick has proven himself to be a manager that knows how to recruit excellent attacking players at Championship level, and has often gotten the best out of them on the pitch.

So, his appointment could be a highly exciting and effective one in that regard for Bristol City.