If Lancashire need a couple of steady hands for their batting line-up this season, they could do a lot worse than popping up to their Old Trafford neighbours and poaching Amad and Bryan Mbeumo.
The Manchester United duo did their best straight bat impression on Tuesday when questions about Michael Carrick's future were thrown at them.
"It’s not for us as a player to decide," Amad replied when asked whether he would like to see Carrick stay. "But he’s been very great, doing so much for the team, a lot of experience, he knows the club and has the DNA."
"We’ve got good experience with him, I like playing under him as well, it’s not for us to decide, we try to take as much as we can," Mbeumo echoed. Combined, the duo were asked three further questions about Carrick by the media pack in a 15-minute press conference. But the United attackers were impenetrable and stuck to their line.
Neither player was ever going to make a grand gesture calling on Sir Jim Ratcliffe to appoint Carrick. However, whether they like it or not, the players will be the ones who hold perhaps the biggest sway on if the interim boss gets the permanent gig.
Performances from this United team have improved ten-fold compared to the Ruben Amorim era. It is hard to believe this is the same group of players but Carrick did not wave a magic wand and improve this squad overnight.
He wisely changed the formation to one that suited the group. He played players in their preferred positions and the results followed.
Nobody really expected Carrick to beat both Manchester City and Arsenal in his opening two games. Those results turned Carrick from a temporary option to a potentially permanent solution.
Since then, the Reds have suffered dips in their form. And yet, their only defeat came at the hands of Newcastle in a display you could sense Carrick despised.
They have dropped points against West Ham and Bournemouth - not ideal results but not damaging enough to tarnish Carrick's image. And after Arsenal's victory on Tuesday, United stand on the verge of Champions League football.
The top five teams in the Premier League will qualify automatically for the competition and, barring a disaster, United will accomplish Carrick's sole objective. Should they manage that, Ineos will find it incredibly difficult not to appoint their interim boss on a permanent contract.
Unless the Reds can convince an elite head coach like Luis Enrique, Zinedine Zidane or Thomas Tuchel to take on the job, the alternatives would all be gambles. Carrick will have done a better job than either of his Ineos predecessors if he returns the club to Europe and saved the co-owners from further scrutiny.
He already has affordability and fan approval on his side. All Carrick needs now is Champions League qualification.
If he achieves that, he is the easy choice for the United gig, so long as these players keep performing for him. Amad and Mbeumo may protest their importance in the hiring process but, right now, Carrick's fate lies in their hands.