Middlesbrough: Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker issue Michael Carrick view | OneFootball

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Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker have claimed that Michael Carrick might no longer be in the conversation for the best coach outside of the Premier League.

Carrick, who spent the majority of his career at Manchester United, remained at the Red Devils in a youth capacity, but was propelled to a national level of interest after being appointed caretaker at Old Trafford following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking in November 2021 - beating Arsenal and Villarreal in the process.

That piqued the attention of Middlesbrough, and after dragging them from relegation candidates to automatic promotion hopefuls in the space of just four months, fans up and down the country took notice despite falling short in the play-offs to Coventry.

But with fans buoyant ahead of a new season, it couldn’t have gone much worse for the Newcastle-born star - with the Riverside club sitting on just two points at the bottom of the league.

Why are Middlesbrough struggling in the Championship this season?

A failure to replace Chuba Akpom and loan stars Cameron Archer, Aaron Ramsey and Zack Steffen adequately has seen them plummet, alongside Carrick’s stock.

Akpom and Archer nabbed 39 goals between them, which is especially impressive with Archer only being there for half a season, whilst Ramsey, Duncan Watmore, Riley McGree, Matt Crooks and Marcus Forss all bagged at least five - the latter notching 10 league strikes for the season.

But new recruits Emmannuel Latte Lath, Sam Silvera, Morgan Rodgers and more have simply failed to fill the void left by those departing by some margin, and it’s been felt on the pitch with Boro drawing two of their seven games - against what would be described as relegation candidates in Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday - and they've scored just five.

They’ve not particularly faced any sides in the promotion race just yet; you’d potentially label Blackburn or Coventry as the toughest side they’ve faced, who aren’t exactly the calibre of the likes of Leicester, Ipswich and table-toppers Preston.

It’s a far cry from last season where Boro were tipped at one point to beat Sheffield United to second place in the league.

What have Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker said about Michael Carrick?

As a result, Boro's poor form has seen Shearer and Lineker air their doubts about Carrick’s abilities, with the duo no longer ranking him as one of the most promising managers in the pyramid due to their torrid start to the season.

Lineker began the conversation on the "The Rest is Football" podcast by stating: “I think if you’d said a few months ago, you might have said Michael Carrick, but they’ve had a tough start to the season.”

And Shearer echoed those thoughts, labelling football as 'bonkers' with the dynamic changing in just a few months. He added: “Isn’t that just crazy how football works like that? There’s no doubt about what you could have said there, you could’ve said Michael months ago.