Carrick speaks on controversial Ratcliff statements

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick says he has not spoken to co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe in the wake of his controversial comments on immigration.

Ratcliffe offered a partial apology in public after saying the United Kingdom had been “colonised by immigrants” in a TV interview earlier this month.

On Friday, Carrick said he was “proud” of United’s heritage, which is partially built on players from overseas.

However, he has not heard from Ratcliffe directly.

“The last time I saw Jim was at Arsenal [on 25 January],” he said.

“I’m fine with that, I don’t think there’s anything really, in terms of constant communication from above, that I need.

“My role is to create the environment within the group, and obviously lead in terms of the first team and beyond.”

As the United employee who has to talk to the media more often than anyone else, Ratcliffe put Carrick in an unenviable position with his comments.

However, the former United midfielder, who has been placed in charge until the end of the season, says his squad are unified and moving in the right direction before Monday’s Premier League trip to Everton.

“We’re definitely all pulling together,” he said. “It’s clear as it could ever be that we are pretty strong as a group.”

Earlier in February, the INEOS founder warned Britain faces profound political, social and economic challenges, among them an unprecedented rise in immigration in recent years.

“You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” Ratcliffe said. “I mean, the UK has been colonised. It’s costing too much money.

“The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn’t it? I mean, the population of the UK was 58m in 2020, now it’s 70m. That’s 12m people.”