Michael Carrick has been in charge of Man Utd for 10 games and his candidacy to stay on as head coach has had another endorsement this week.

Michael Carrick has made a convincing case to become the permanent head coach at Manchester United over the last three months, and on Tuesday, his players backed up his own claims with a statement of their own.

United have taken 23 points from a possible 30 under Carrick and there is a reason the temporary head coach is now the favourite to land the job on a permanent basis.

While United insist they will continue to go through a “thorough process” to ensure they appoint the right man, Carrick’s claims are becoming hard to ignore. He has delivered results, the performances have been strong, he has shown himself to be a safe pair of hands in public, and now he has the players singing his praises.

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United’s absence from European football this season means there haven’t been the usual windows into training that UEFA fixtures grant, when the first 15 minutes of training the day before a game are open to the media. At Carton House in County Kildare, that privilege was granted on Tuesday, and it was noticeable that the mood had shifted.

There was a lightness and a joviality to the United players as they warmed up in the Irish sun. They looked and sounded like a connected group and the hands-on nature of the staff seemed to be popular with them.

It’s hard to take too much away from such a small glimpse into their daily world, but it aligns with what players have been saying in private, and when Amad and Bryan Mbeumo sat at the top table in one of Carton House’s plush conference rooms a few hours later, they delivered their own verdict.

Players have tended to dodge the issue of Carrick’s future and the search for a permanent head coach over the past couple of months, but Amad had no intention of slaloming his way past the question as he does against opposition defences.

“We think he’s the right man,” the 23-year-old winger said to the first question on Carrick’s future. More would follow and the answer was similar every time.

“We are really happy to have him as the manager.” “My personal view is he’s the right man.” On and on it went, including a glowing reference for Carrick’s man-management skills from Amad, who offered the nugget that they had met up when both in the north east, Carrick as Middlesbrough boss and Amad as Sunderland loanee.

Amad said a couple of times that the “club will decide” and that it isn’t up to the players who get the job, but this felt like an endorsement that was hard to ignore.

Chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox are leading the search for a permanent head coach and it’s one that has yet to involve any serious conversations with external candidates, which itself strengthens Carrick’s position.

Berrada and Wilcox would be foolish not to consult the players, even if that is just a chat with captain Bruno Fernandes, or other senior leaders such as Harry Maguire, Diogo Dalot and Tom Heaton. The players seem united on the view that Carrick is the right man.

If that feedback makes its way to Berrada and Wilcox, and Carrick maintains momentum to ensure Champions League qualification, then the idea of keeping the 44-year-old in charge becomes almost impossible to ignore.

Amad is right that it isn’t the players who will decide their next head coach, but their view should certainly be taken into account. That is just another tick next to Carrick’s name in what is beginning to look like a one-horse race.