Carrick: Belief’s returned after summer splashes

The early signs are that Manchester United have their swagger back – that’s the opinion of a man who has seen and done it all at Old Trafford.

Michael Carrick’s future was uncertain heading into the summer before Jose Mourinho retained his services for another season that will take his time spent with the club up to 11 years.

The 35-year-old has won nine major trophies during his stay in Manchester, but by United’s standards, the three years since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement have been fallow ones.

All that could be about to change however, according to Carrick, after claiming heavyweight signings Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly have immediately re-energised the squad.

“It’s certainly been a good window with the four top players coming in,” he said.

“They’re top players really on a world level who are going to bring that confidence and belief you need to play here and achieve things.

“It’s what we’ve had for so many years, that confidence to go into big games knowing the end goal is to win trophies.

“They have managed to do that themselves and it can rub off on the younger boys who maybe haven’t won as much yet.”

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And Carrick believes the fact that all signings were sealed before a Premier League ball was even kicked – in stark contrast to United’s various fruitless pursuits of recent years – is another huge bonus.

“Our main targets are in, it seems, and we are a squad now – this is what we’re going to go forward achieving things with,” he added.

“I think, in an ideal world, you want your squad ready as early as possible and settled. We’ve managed to do that and hopefully it’s going to make a massive difference. It’s a really terrific squad in terms of quality and depth now.”