After Glenn Hoddle and Paul Gascoigne, Carrick was surely the next best midfielder to wear Tottenham's colours since the early 1980's.
How great the gap in legendary status between Carrick and Hoddle and Gazza is difficult to ascertain at this point in time. Many supporters are feeling anguish because unlike his predecessors Carrick has left Tottenham to join another English club.
The talk in football at the moment might be all about whether or not Carrick can fill the boots of Roy Keane, but as Sir Alex Ferguson has pointed out it will take four players to replace the former Republic of Ireland international. He's learned that the difficult way.
At Carrick's press conference, Ferguson said: "Roy Keane was a possession player, an A-to-B passer. His percentage of successful passes was incredible, always over 90 per cent. Michael has shown that he has the ability to retain possession, which Roy was so good at, also that he's more imaginative with the ball than Roy, hitting longer passes."
In the same kind of way, a lot has been made of Tottenham's signing Didier Zokora from St Etienne as if he will be Carrick's straight replacement. Although well known to Spurs director of football Damien Comolli, he's a player about to make a big step up in his career and doesn't need that unnecessary pressure.
Jon Brodkin on the subject of Zokora wrote in The Guardian: ‘Martin Jol feels his midfield remains as strong as last season and his importance looks greater than ever as the Spurs boss seeks to rearrange without Carrick. But Zokora is no more the new Carrick than Carrick is the new Roy Keane. Although Zokora is more dynamic than Carrick, a stronger defender and capable of driving runs, but his playmaking is less impressive.'
Conrad Leach follows suit in The Independent: ‘Zokora is not someone to guide the play and neither is he simply a deeper holding midfielder.'