Inside Manchester United’s Dublin training camp

Despite the buzz of a drone flying above the football pitch in front of him and the sound of Manchester United fans yelling “Carrick is the best” and “One more year, Casemiro” from behind a security fence, Jonathan Woodgate could just about hear a familiar voice that was trying to get his attention before training began on Tuesday morning.

It was that of Nicky Byrne, who before embarking on a singing career with the Irish pop group Westlife, played alongside Woodgate in the Leeds United academy.

Given that Tuesday was the first time the two had met since they went their separate ways in 1997, they shared an embrace on the touchline and had a brief catch-up before duty called for Woodgate, who is one of the coaches on Michael Carrick’s backroom staff.

United may be flying (without wings) under Carrick of late, losing only one of his ten matches in charge, but the 44-year-old knows that ultimately, results over the course of the next seven weeks will determine whether he stays on as head coach next season.

Amad Diallo made the squad’s position on the matter clear at a press conference in the Lady Glanville suite at Carton House, where United stayed, earlier this week. “We think he’s the right man [for the job],” Amad, the United winger, said.

At present, the working assumption among staff, right up to senior members of the club’s hierarchy, is that Carrick will remain in charge but a blitz of victories to round off the season would strengthen his case even further.

United are seven points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea but Carrick and his backroom staff have been telling the players this week during their four-day training camp in Co Kildare that they must focus their efforts on trying to close the gap to the top two, rather than finishing fifth or above, and therefore qualifying for the Champions League. United are six points behind second-placed Manchester City, though Pep Guardiola’s side have a game in hand.

“I think the language we should be using for this club is to finish as close as we possibly can to the top,” Steve Holland, Carrick’s assistant, said. “We’ve been speaking more to the players about winning our matches, rather than thinking too much about what’s happening below.

“Given the context, to finish in the Champions League places would be a good situation for us, but I think we should always be looking for more than that.”

Carrick and his staff decided last month that it would be a good idea to focus the players’ minds by taking them away for a few days, especially given the 24-day gap between their previous fixture, a 2-2 draw away to Bournemouth, and their next encounter, at home to Leeds United on Monday.

At training on Tuesday, another member of Carrick’s backroom staff, Jonny Evans, spoke of the trip as a “stimulus” to the players, especially those who have been away on international duty.

When it was revealed a couple of weeks ago that United would be heading to Co Kildare, they described the jaunt as an “intense training camp” and it lived up to its billing, with the players taking part in three lengthy sessions after their arrival at their five-star hotel on Monday evening when they were greeted by hundreds of fans.

The sessions lasted more than two hours and they were preceded by intense cardio and stretching sessions in the gym next to the perfectly manicured training pitches that have previously been used by Real Madrid, Chelsea, England and the Armagh Gaelic football team, who are regulars.

Carton House, which is 15 miles west of Dublin, has a storied past, with Queen Victoria, Mick Jagger and Grace Kelly among those who have stayed at the grand 18th-century hotel, which sits among a tree-lined 1,100-acre estate.

There was a bit of a hiccup last Friday when Armagh turned up for a pre-season camp only to find the two training pitches had been painted for football, rather than Gaelic football — someone, somewhere along the line, had messed up the booking — but they gave way to United and trained elsewhere.

Onlookers have spoken about the tight-knit nature of the United squad being evident during the three-night trip, which comes before a challenging run-in that begins with Leeds and contains home games against Brentford, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest and away matches versus Chelsea, Sunderland and Brighton & Hove Albion.

Spirits were said to be high and training was intense, thanks partly to the return of Lisandro Martínez, who added more spice to training sessions after his recovery from a calf injury and is set to be available for Monday’s match at Old Trafford.

Travis Binnion, promoted to first-team coach from the under-21s after Carrick replaced Ruben Amorim in January, started the sessions, lining the players up in teams of five.

One player dribbled the ball between four poles and then pinged a 20-yard pass into a small box, where all four of his team-mates were told to touch the ball once en route to finishing into a tiny goal.

“Did you like that?” Harry Maguire asked Woodgate after he smoothly fired a volley into the 2x1m net from five yards away.

After the warm-up, the players did some stretches and sprints before embarking on training drills with Carrick and then rounding off the session with a game of doubles head tennis on a volleyball court next to the training pitch. Bruno Fernandes and Matheus Cunha were the pick of the bunch, beating all challengers.

The players watched the Champions League games at their hotel and United’s under-21 match against Real Madrid, and had their own area for eating, but they did not hide away from fans who queued up en masse before training every morning. It was estimated that about 3,000 supporters lined the barriers that led up to the training pitches, and they all got a selfie or autograph.

The players had a bit of downtime on Tuesday afternoon, which they filled by clay pigeon shooting, visiting the spa or playing on one of the two plush golf courses at Carton House, which were designed by Mark O’Meara and Colin Montgomerie.

Benjamin Sesko took part in a publicity shoot at Croke Park, the 82,000-capacity stadium which will host one of United’s pre-season friendlies — also against Leeds, on August 12 — and impressed the locals by revealing that he had already watched GAA games on television.

United turned down a big-money offer to go to Asia in the summer because they want a football-first approach to their season, and keeping them in Europe, where their travel would be limited, is far more sensible.

United will start the summer with a friendly against Wrexham in Helsinki on July 18 and then play Rosenborg in Trondheim, Atletico Madrid in Stockholm, and Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg, before facing Leeds in Dublin. They have been so impressed by the facilities at Carton House this week that they are likely to stay at the hotel again for the Leeds friendly.

To ensure he is in charge of those games, Carrick needs to end the season well.

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