Carrick poised for United debut
Michael Carrick will make his full debut for premier league leaders
Manchester United against former club Tottenham Hotspur at Old
Trafford on Saturday, manager Alex Ferguson confirmed on
Friday.
Carrick joined United from Tottenham in July for a fee that could
rise to 18.5 million pounds ($34.66 million) but is yet to start a
match after sustaining an ankle injury in pre-season.
The 25-year-old midfielder is now fully recovered and after one
substitute's appearance for United will get the chance of an early
meeting with his former employers.
"I think he will be glad to get it over with. I think anybody
playing for the first time against their old team will want to get
it out of the way," Ferguson told reporters.
"He owes a lot to Tottenham. They took the chance on him at West
Ham when maybe others didn't."
Carrick has a key role to play for Ferguson's side, particularly
following United's failure to land top target Owen Hargreaves from
Bayern Munich before the transfer window closed.
Tottenham manager Martin Jol said: "I've had to cope with the idea
of not having Michael (Carrick) for the last six or seven weeks so
it hasn't been easy because we wanted to keep him.
"But he wanted to move up north and in particular to Manchester
United. So when they paid us I had to let him go.
"I saw the problem of us not being able to pick a pass against
Everton (when Tottenham lost 2-0 at home) and we just have to work
on it.
"
He added: "The amount of money we received for him doesn't make me
proud because I would've loved him to stay.
"Michael will continue to get better. I don't agree with people who
say he isn't the complete holding midfielder because nearly every
one of our attacks started with him."
