MICHAEL Carrick has been voted January’s English Premier League Manager of the Month for the the first time after a perfect return to Manchester United.
After taking over from Ruben Amorim in mid-January, Carrick guided Manchester United to stunning victories against the top two in the Premier League.
Carrick kicked off his temporary tenure at Old Trafford with a sensational 2-0 derby win against Manchester City, and then masterminded a 3-2 win at Arsenal to inflict a first home league defeat of the season on Mikel Arteta’s title-chasers.
Manchester United took twice as many points from their two January matches under Carrick – against the teams first and second in the table – as they collected from the three before that, against Leeds United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley, three of the bottom six.
Carrick is one of only seven interim managers/head coaches to earn the accolade, and the second Man Utd boss to do so alongside Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who won it in January 2019 following a brilliant start to his interim spell.
Darren Moore (West Bromwich Albion, April 2018), Mike Jackson (Burnley, April 2022), Mike Phelan (Hull City, August 2016), Rafael Benitez (Chelsea, April 2013) and Phil Thompson (Liverpool, November 2001 and March 2002) have also won the award while not being the club’s permanent appointment.
Carrick is also the first English manager/head coach since April 2024 to win the award, when Sean Dyche was in charge at Everton.
Carrick topped a four-man shortlist also featuring Dyche (Nottingham Forest), Andoni Iraola (AFC Bournemouth) and Liam Rosenior (Chelsea) after votes from fans were combined with those of a panel of experts.
Meanwhile, Igor Thiago has made history after winning the January English Premier League Player of the Month award.
The Brentford striker, who signed a new five-and-a-half-year contract today, becomes the first Brazilian in Premier League history to win the award on multiple occasions.
After claiming the prize in November 2025, Thiago added a further five goals to his Premier League tally to win January’s award as the Bees kept their surprise bid for a top-six finish on track with wins over Everton and Sunderland.
All of Thiago’s goals came in those two victories, recording a hat-trick against Everton and two goals versus Sunderland as he continued to chase down Erling Haaland in the race for this season’s Golden Boot.