Michael Carrick returns to his native Newcastle today, determined to notch up a first win at St James' Park and help fire Manchester United back into title contention.

Carrick has never won at Toon with West Ham, Tottenham and United, but the midfielder is set to be recalled to the starting line-up by Sir Alex Ferguson for tonight's encounter.


Born in Wallsend, Carrick could, ironically, have been lining up for Newcastle against United today, had Kevin Keegan not disbanded the reserve section in his first spell at St James' Park.

That forced Carrick, then 15, to leave the north-east and head to West Ham, because he felt he would not make it on Tyneside because of the lack of opportunities for young players.

the above is from the mirror

thsi si from the nufc blog
When Kevin Keegan was at the club, he did away with the Reserve side, and we never could understand that, but it cost Newcastle a few top youngsters at the time, because where were they going to get a game as they progressed through the club, from the U18s?

John Carver was involved when Newcastle could have had Michael Carrick at Newcastle, when he was playing for Wallsend Boys Club at the time (1996), but instead he went to West Ham United, simply because he could see himself progressing and getting games down south.

i think i remeber it as these

whatever happened he did us a lot of harm and put our youth footy back years