Manchester United have reached an initial agreement to hand over the helm of the team to Mauricio Pochettino, and the club’s senior executives have met in Monaco to make a final decision on the sacking of Michael Carrick.
According to Sports Three, Sky Sports reported that Manchester United has reached a verbal agreement with Mauricio Pochettino, and after the sacking of Michael Carrick, this Argentinian coach will immediately take over the leadership of the Red Devils. With Carrick training the players at Carrington’s training complex today, the club’s directors agreed a deal with Pochettino behind closed doors, with the final details of the deal being worked out with his manager. Also, negotiations with the American Football Federation to determine the exact time of this coach’s departure have accelerated.
Pochettino has a £7 million release clause in the contract he signed with the American Football Association after last summer’s World Cup. This amount is not considered a problem according to Old Trafford managers. The main hurdle now is timing and logistics, as Pochettino is scheduled to be on the bench for the U.S. national team’s CONCACAF Nations League games against Haiti on Saturday and Wednesday. As soon as this issue is resolved, the 54-year-old head coach will be ready to travel to Manchester. Interestingly, the American Football Federation canceled the players’ media interview program on Wednesday under the pretext of Veterans Day so that the American national team would not face controversial questions about the departure of the head coach.
Behind the scenes of the emergency meeting in Monaco
While Carrick was in Manchester working with the players, United’s key decision-makers held a crucial meeting with Sir Jim Ratcliffe in Monaco. Chief executive Omar Brada and the club’s sporting director Jason Wilcox were due to meet with Ratcliffe to assess their early season performance, but United’s disastrous drop into the relegation zone and the club’s worst start in the league’s history in 40 years turned the meeting into a dismissal court. Brada and Wilcox must make their final offer to Ratcliffe, who is in control of the club’s football affairs, to decide the fate of the bench.
Carrick were given another chance last month after a heavy 3-0 defeat at home to Bournemouth, but this time there is no escape.
Why can’t Pochettino say no to United?
United had previously negotiated for Pochettino at three different times and even went as far as signing a contract in 2022, but in the end Erik Tenhach was chosen.
Sir Alex Ferguson has always been a staunch supporter of Pochettino and had a detailed conversation with him several times after the Tottenham and United games. In May 2016, amid rumors of Louis van Gaal’s succession, a picture of Ferguson and Pochettino was caught in a London restaurant, although United chose Jose Mourinho at the time. Although Pochettino is content to work with the US national team, Manchester United’s offer is not an opportunity he can turn down. Pochettino is ready to return to the English Premier League two years after leaving Chelsea.
The end of a 10-year dance between Old Trafford and Pooch
Speaking about the move, Sky Sports pundit Laura Hunter says the history of Pochettino’s relationship with United was full of romantic dances that never reached their final destination. The managers of the club, both during his time in Tottenham and when he finished his career in Paris Saint-Germain, always had him in mind, but in 2023, Chelsea took the lead. In the days when the news of his presence in London was published, Tenhach’s United were humiliated against Sevilla. 18 months have passed since that day, many managers have come and gone, until after a decade of chasing, the doors of Old Trafford finally opened at the right time for this Argentinian coach.
