Mauricio Pochettino is set to inherit a Manchester United in an unfamiliar place: a league table that lists them in 18th, one win from ten matches, and the relegation zone staring back.
Sky Sports News reported on Wednesday that United have reached an agreement in principle with the 54-year-old to replace Michael Carrick, with the remaining details still to be worked through between the club and the player’s representatives.
The sticking point is not the contract itself but the exit. Pochettino is still head coach of the United States men’s national team, and his release clause is understood to cost around £7m, with United also willing to compensate members of his coaching staff.
Monaco meeting, Carrick exit
Carrick’s future was reviewed at a meeting in Monaco attended by co-owner Jim Ratcliffe, chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox, according to Ben Jacobs’s reporting carried in Business Upturn. A run of results that peaked, if that is the word, in a 2-2 draw with Aston Villa after twice trailing by two goals has left the board unwilling to continue with him.
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United have won one of their ten Premier League matches this season, their worst start to a Premier League campaign on record.
The Haiti problem
The scheduling is awkward. Pochettino was still expected to take charge of the United States in their CONCACAF Nations League quarter-final against Haiti this weekend before any move to England was finalised, which complicates the question of when he can actually start work in Manchester.
That timing matters because United’s next Premier League fixture is on Saturday, 22 November, away at Liverpool. The club have moved quickly in the belief that Pochettino, and not Carrick, should be in the away dugout at Anfield.
What he walks into
Pochettino’s CV at club level is familiar to Premier League audiences, from Southampton through Tottenham, where he took Spurs to the 2019 Champions League final, to Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. The job at United is a harder brief than any of those: a dressing room without rhythm, a form line that reads one win from ten matches, and a fixture at Anfield as the first test.
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He also arrives with a recent credit on the international ledger. Pochettino guided the United States to the round of 16 at the 2026 World Cup, the summer tournament jointly held in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Carrick is expected to be formally informed of the decision on Thursday, 12 November, with United’s announcement of Pochettino to follow once the release terms with US Soccer are signed off.
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