PRIMED & READY

Carrick to do battle with Frank months on from Amazon chat

- BY SIMON PEACH AND ALASDAIR GOLD

BEFORE Thomas Frank took his first steps as a manager in the Champions League in September, a former player interviewed him for Amazon Prime about the big night ahead.

Spurs went on to beat Villarreal 1-0, where that player was also a pundit. He also happened to know a thing or two about Europe's top club competition, having won it with Manchester United.

The player in question was Michael Carrick, once, of course, of Tottenham.

At lunchtime today, Carrick and Frank will meet again.

And when they speak, it will be in rather different circumstances.

United's head coach Carrick is hunting a fourth win on the bounce, having enjoyed a dream start to his reign for the remainder of the campaign.

They are fourth in the table, while Spurs are 14th.

"Yeah, (life) certainly can change," said Carrick, looking back to the Amazon Prime interview. I really enjoyed it, actually. We got on really well.

"It's the first time I've met him properly and we had a good chat, just about general kind of football things. A little bit on processes and ideas, but he was really accommodating.