Manchester United reportedly eye Bayern assistant Aaron Danks as potential No.2 to Michael Carrick

Manchester United are reported to be interested in recruiting Bayern Munich assistant coach Aaron Danks to strengthen Michael Carrick’s backroom staff at Old Trafford, according to reports on November 9, 2026. The approach comes amid United’s poor start to the Premier League season and speculation over Carrick’s future following the club’s 4-4 draw with Aston Villa.

Manchester United sit 18th in the Premier League with eight points from 10 matches after the 4-4 draw with Aston Villa, leaving the club in the relegation zone heading into the November international break. The club’s director of football Jason Wilcox, chief executive Omar Berrada and other senior figures are expected to assess a range of options in the coming days, with names such as Eddie Howe and Unai Emery reported to be linked. If the board opts to retain Carrick, they are said to be considering strengthening the coaching staff, and TEAMtalk has linked Danks as a potential No.2.

Aaron Danks was born in Birmingham on June 15, 1983, and developed his coaching career in academy settings before moving into senior roles. He began at Birmingham City and later spent more than a decade at West Bromwich Albion between 2005 and 2016, according to the report. After leaving West Brom Danks joined the Football Association as a youth coach and worked with England’s youth teams from 2016 to 2021.

While with England’s youth setup Danks was part of the coaching staff that won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2017 and also worked with the U-21 side, the report states. His first senior coaching position came as an assistant to Vincent Kompany at RSC Anderlecht. He subsequently served on the coaching staff at Aston Villa under Dean Smith and later Steven Gerrard.

Danks joined Middlesbrough in December 2022, where he worked alongside Michael Carrick, and after two years with the English club he moved to Bayern Munich as an assistant coach where he reunited with Kompany. A social-media post noted that Danks’s 16-year-old son Coby was present at Säbener Straße while his father led a training session, and included a partial quote attributed to Danks: “My family still lives in England, so I'm alone in Munich. They come to visit me during the school holidays, and I spend time with…"

Following Vincent Kompany’s hospitalisation in October 2026, Danks took interim charge of Bayern Munich and has remained unbeaten in his first five matches, recording four wins and one draw. That run is the basis for the report linking him to Manchester United as they consider adjustments to their coaching team.

United’s board must decide in the coming days whether to replace Michael Carrick or retain him and bolster the backroom staff; if they choose the latter, TEAMtalk reports Aaron Danks is among the candidates to join Carrick as No.2 while Danks continues in his interim role at Bayern with a four-wins, one-draw record.