Manchester United v Aston Villa LIVE: Premier League team news and line-up as interest in Michael Carrick replacement cools

“My ambition is to keep our consistency and how we are improving and building lots of things positively. It is a huge challenge.

“They decided, speaking with us last year, to build a new stand to add more supporters at Villa Park. That is a clear step forward to get better.

“How we are increasing our budget each year, and revenue through our performance by playing in Europe and improving players, selling players, then buying young talented players, this is the process and ambition we should keep in the future.

“I had a good meeting with Nassef Sawiris, very good meeting, very positive. Let’s talk next week, trying to get everything we spoke about together.

“We were speaking about how we can set our project stronger with a deal, yes.”

Manchester United will be without Carlos Baleba for several weeks due to the hamstring injury he suffered against Roma.

United are waiting to discover if the £70m signing will play again this year as they are still to learn the full extent of his problem.

“We don’t know, but it will be a number of weeks,” said manager Michael Carrick, “It won’t be after the international break [that Baleba returns]. It’ll be a little bit longer than that.”

The 22-year-old went off in tears after pulling up in the first minute of the second half on Tuesday and was not expected to be fit for Sunday’s match against Aston Villa.

But now he is set to miss the trip to Anfield on 22 November and the Champions League game against Sporting CP three days later.

United face seven games in December, including a visit to Arsenal on December 20 and it is uncertain if Baleba will be fit in time to return then.

Baleba, who missed the start of the season with an ankle injury, has only started five games since his £70m move from Brighton.

Julian Nagelsmann’s stock has significantly dropped, meanwhile. While Manchester United’s Christoph Vivell is said to be a fan, others in the hierarchy will be aware that Bayern Munich would not speak highly about his time there. The players didn’t respond well to his approach or personality, and the image persists of Nagelsmann arriving to training on a skateboard. It is hard not to think of a line from The Sopranos. In the same way “a don doesn’t wear shorts”, a Manchester United manager doesn’t have a skateboard.

Manchester United have been racked by indecision over the future of Michael Carrick. Numerous sources say there is a sense that no one was actually willing to make a call on the manager, a problem compounded by the fact they have “little idea” over a replacement.

In fairness, there are questions and debates over all of the main alternatives. United are understood to be much less sold on Eddie Howe than perception would have it. Sebastian Hoeness is highly rated, but his appointment would still involve a huge Ruben Amorim-like leap from Stuttgart. Fabian Hurzeler might struggle without Brighton’s structure amid higher stakes, and there are doubts over whether United can even afford the compensation. Cesc Fabregas is impressing at Como but isn’t going anywhere for now, and is viewed as Mikel Arteta’s eventual successor at Arsenal.

Manchester United remain in a ‘will they, won’t they’ situation as they prepare to host Aston Villa in the Premier League and their last match before the international break.

Michael Carrick has so far survived the thrashing at Como, the humiliation at Bournemouth and the unravelling at Chelsea, while finally ending United’s nine-match winless run by beating Roma in the Champions League in midweek.

But will that be enough? Or can Unai Emery’s Aston Villa give United another day to forget and leave the Old Trafford hierarchy with a decision to make over the upcoming fortnight.