Pochettino is the leading external candidate to replace Michael Carrick at Old Trafford, with multiple reports identifying the Argentine as Manchester United’s preferred option if the English club part ways with Carrick this week.
Carrick’s position has unravelled at speed. Manchester United have won once in their first ten Premier League matches and sit one point off the bottom of the table, with executives at Old Trafford reportedly set to recommend his dismissal.
Pochettino’s U.S. Soccer contract, extended in August through the 2030 World Cup cycle after the USMNT’s round-of-16 run on home soil in the summer, contains a release clause that The Athletic has put at $10 million, according to Front Office Sports. The figure would rise if Manchester United also wanted to prise away his support staff.
Pochettino has not shut down the talk
The USMNT head coach has done little to dampen the speculation. In a recent interview with French daily L’Equipe, relayed by Yahoo Sports, he said he missed life on the other side of the Atlantic.
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“I miss the world of football in England. I love the country, its culture, the football culture.”
That remark, allied to his Premier League work at Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea, is why his name keeps surfacing at the top of Manchester United’s shortlist.
Robinson keeps focus on Haiti
In the short term, Pochettino and his players have a two-legged Concacaf Nations League quarter-final against Haiti to deal with. The United States host the first leg at the Nu Stadium in Miami on Saturday, 14 November, with kick-off at 4:30pm local time, before the return at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati on Tuesday, 17 November at 7pm local time.
Robinson, the Fulham left-back and one of the senior figures in the 25-man squad called into camp outside Atlanta, told ESPN that Pochettino’s name being linked with Old Trafford had not become a talking point inside the group, with the players entirely focused on the Haiti double-header.
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The United States last lifted the Nations League in 2024, before Mexico claimed the 2024-25 edition.
What a Manchester United approach would cost
Manchester United’s hierarchy are reportedly preparing to meet to decide Carrick’s fate, with a permanent appointment, rather than another interim, the stated preference. Should the club move for Pochettino, they would have to trigger the release clause and negotiate separate compensation for his staff.
U.S. Soccer have shown no public appetite for selling. Pochettino’s contract runs through the 2030 World Cup, and the Haiti tie is the first competitive outing of a four-year cycle built explicitly around him.
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