Carrick was not a Manchester United player, but started at West Ham United and later moved to Tottenham Hotspur. It was not until 2006 that he was recruited by Ferguson to Manchester United for 16.8 million euros.

Ferguson was very optimistic about Carrick. After all, in 2006, although the price of 16.8 million euros was not top-tier, it was definitely a sky-high transfer fee for a not-so-famous young player.

Carrick is 29 years old, 185cm tall and weighs 75kg.

But before joining Manchester United, Carrick was a pretty boy, weighing only 66kg, and his confrontational ability was naturally very poor.

Ferguson initially wanted to train Carrick to be a player like Roy Keane, and Carrick also got Keane's No. 16 jersey, but Carrick was not the type of player that Keane was at all.

When Carrick first came to Manchester United, he had many nicknames - Queen Carrick, Missing Carrick, Invisible Emperor, Passing Back Guy, and Soft Guy.

Therefore, in the first few years after he came to Manchester United, Carrick struggled and could not find his own position. He worked very hard, but always gave people the impression that his ability was mediocre and he was not worthy of Manchester United at all. This led to his lack of confidence. In addition, his physical fitness was at a disadvantage in high-level confrontations, especially when it came to imitating Roy Keane, Carrick seemed even more uncomfortable.

At that time, Carrick gave people a feeling of being unreliable both in the front and back courts. Once the opponent's midfield stranglehold increased, Carrick, who played in a soft style, would disappear directly and even make various low-level mistakes.

The Red Devils fans have almost never stopped criticizing Carrick, and the weakness in the post-Keane era is also the most serious problem facing the Manchester United team.

In the first few years of Manchester United, Carrick won many honors with Manchester United as a substitute, but none of them was earned by himself. Carrick once doubted himself and even wanted to transfer away.

But at this time, Ferguson's ability to judge people and his courage were evident. Ferguson continued to believe in Carrick and continued to give him time to find his position.

With Ferguson's encouragement, Carrick quickly evolved.

Although he wore Keane's No. 16 jersey and played as a defensive midfielder, Carrick no longer played according to other people's expectations of him - not every defensive midfielder has to play like a defensive midfielder or a skilled player, Pirlo and Busquets are not like that, and neither is Carrick.

Carrick's evolution began in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons. By the 2010-11 season, Carrick had completely completed the transformation and had completely awakened.

This is actually also due to Scholes.

In the two seasons since Scholes retired and returned to Manchester United, he no longer attacks forward as he did in the past, but instead focuses on his ability to coordinate in the backcourt. Scholes' control over the team's offensive and defensive rhythm has reached a superb level.

Under the influence of Scholes, the double midfield cooperation between Carrick and Fletch began to get on track - Fletch was equivalent to a troublemaker in the midfield, while Carrick stayed back to organize the attack. The cooperation between the two was equivalent to that of a Scholes.

On defense, although Carrick cannot sweep his own backcourt like Keane, Carrick has developed an excellent sense of position. He can not only assist his teammates in defense, but also complete beautiful steals.

Later, in the post-Ferguson era, Manchester United entered a turbulent period. Carrick's style of play became more stable during this stage. Although his physical fitness was still weak, he relied on his height and excellent positioning prediction to act as Manchester United's metronome in defense and team counterattacks.

Both coach Moyes and coach Van Gaal are inseparable from Carrick. It is also in the past two years that Manchester United fans finally stopped calling Carrick the Invisible Emperor and instead respectfully called him the God of Carrick.

It is not difficult to see from the growth trajectories of Scholes and Carrick that real stars are not born, but have made their mark step by step through progress and growth.

Some stars' names are not really famous, but in fact they are just low-key, and their strength is really no worse than those famous super stars.

Two extremely strong stars like Scholes and Carrick were sitting on the bench of Manchester United, as well as the substitute striker golden boy Owen and the unhappy winger Valencia - Manchester United of this era was truly a super battleship that was enough to make people gasp, and this era also belonged to the Red Devils.

Compared with the starting forward and midfield, Manchester United's starting defense is more luxurious.

Manchester United's starting four defenders are:

No. 20 Fabio, No. 3 Evra, No. 5 Ferdinand, No. 15 Vidic.

The 20-year-old Brazilian defender Fabio da Silva is 172cm tall, weighs 69kg, and is still in the stage of technical development.

What Manchester United fans value most about him is not his explosive speed and his ability to play in multiple positions such as left and right full-back and left and right wing-back - the most important thing is that Fabio has a twin brother, Rafael.

Rafael and Fabio look almost exactly the same, and can play as left or right full-back and left or right wing-back.

The two brothers' height, weight, and ball-handling style are almost exactly the same.

Manchester United has always liked this kind of twin brothers left and right full-back combination, because in the Class of 92, Gary Neville and Philip Neville were very famous and very capable left and right full-backs.

Gary Neville and Philip Neville once played as left and right full-back partners in the national team.

This combination of twin brothers, regardless of their strength, is enough to attract a lot of attention just by their identities.

So, when the brothers Fabio and Rafael were bought by Manchester United, the then Manchester United captain Gary Neville exclaimed: Boss, this is going to make me retire! The most glorious moment in the lives of the brothers Fabio and Rafael was when they received an invitation call from Ronaldo himself when they were less than 18 years old.

At that time, Fabio and Rafael had already had trials at Manchester United and had also received trial invitations from Wenger's Arsenal. The brothers' abilities had already emerged among the top clubs.

In an interview with the media, Fabio described it with an intoxicated face: "It was a rainy day. Just when Rafael and I were lying at home feeling bored, our phone rang. When I picked up the phone, the first thing I heard was a greeting in Portuguese. As a Brazilian, of course I can understand Portuguese, which made me feel very cordial, but also very strange, because that voice was both strange and familiar - that familiar yet strange voice said to me, Hi, I am Cristiano Ronaldo."

...(End of this chapter)