Manchester United star Michael Carrick has revealed who his footballing idols were as a child.
Newcastle boy Carrick started life at Wallsend Boys Club on Tyneside and was snapped up by West Ham United as a teenager.
It was there he established himself as one of the most promising central midfielders of the modern era and broke into the England team.
A move to Spurs followed and he was soon on Manchester United’s radar as Sir Alex Ferguson splashed out £18.5 million to sign Carrick at Old Trafford.
It is there the classy midfielder set down his roots, racking up 460 appearances for the Red Devils over 11 years and winning five Premier League titles, an FA Cup, three League Cups, six Community Sheilds and the Champions League, Europa League and World Club Cup.
But looking back on his career with Paul Merson for Sky Sports as it approaches its swan song, Carrick revealed two Newcastle legends were the players he idolised.
“When I was a kid I was a massive fan of Beardsley, loved watching Peter Beardsley,” Carrick told Merson on Sky Sports.
“Obviously he was from the (Wallsend) Boys Club where I was from and he had links like that but I just loved the way he played.
Beardsley in his Newcastle days gets away from Steve McMahon of Liverpool
“Paul Gascoigne was another, for obvious reasons, he was everyone’s favourite wasn’t he… and I loved watching Ian Wright. They were the main three when I was a kid.”
Carrick has been so often linked with a return to his boyhood club that fans at Magpies fans have long grown fed up with the speculation.
The latest was in the summer when Rafa Benitez was rumoured to want to Carrick but he told Chronicle Live he would never play for another English club after the Red Devils granted him a testimonial.
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