Carrick and Pogba
Carrick already identifies Pogba's qualities as a captain. Getty

KEY POINTS

  • The 36-year-old midfielder replaced Wayne Rooney as skipper this summer.
  • Pogba has "presence, character and belief to pull it off," says Carrick.

Michael Carrick believes Paul Pogba has all the qualities needed to succeed him as Manchester United captain when he finally decides to hang up his boots.

Carrick, 36, was named United's new skipper following Wayne Rooney's return to boyhood club Everton. The former Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United midfielder is now comfortably the club's longest-serving player having joined the club in 2006 but has already suggested the 2017-18 campaign could be his last.

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Selecting a new skipper next summer will beckon if Carrick retires at the end of the season, and while Pogba will have only been back at Old Trafford for two years by that point, the United veteran feels he could be an obvious choice when the time comes.

"He's certainly got the presence, character and belief to pull it off," Carrick said of the France international. "All the time I am sure the manager is planning a long way behind me, for someone to take on that mantle and he is probably in that bracket where you'd say – 'yeah, he can be a future captain.'

"You need that inner confidence and inner belief. You are going to take some knocks, suffer some bumps and bruises along the way and take a lot of criticism. But you have to fight that off and be strong enough to get on with the job and believe in yourself."

Carrick won three league titles in his first three seasons at Old Trafford, winning two more before Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013. Since then, the veteran midfielder has celebrated a League Cup, FA Cup and Europa League success but is desperate for one more Premier League crown.

"It's all about winning things," Carrick said. "In some ways, it's winning the league or nothing...I can't get my head around that to say top four is acceptable."

He added: "I was obviously fortunate enough to win the league straight away and, having that run we did in my first three years, gives you that taste of 'right, it's all or nothing now', so maybe I was spoiled in my early years."

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