November 11: Mauricio Pochettino is ready to walk away from a renewed $6m-a-year US contract he signed just three months ago to take charge of Manchester United, if the club formally offer him the job.
United have opened talks with the 54-year-old, with Michael Carrick set to be shown the exit door after the club’s worst start to a Premier League season. Pochettino is understood to want the United job and would accept an offer once Carrick’s position is resolved. His contract contains a release clause worth around $10m (£7.5m), which United would have to pay US Soccer to secure his departure. Additional compensation could come if members of his longtime coaching staff move with him.
Pochettino signed a new U.S. Soccer deal through 2030 on Aug. 3, extending a term that began in September 2024 and was supposed to take the national team through an entire World Cup cycle.
Speaking the following month, he seemed committed to the plan.
“The project is 2030,” Pochettino said as the United States began life after their home World Cup.
The timing makes things even more complicated, with Pochettino currently preparing the USA for a Concacaf Nations League quarter-final against Haiti. He is apparently keen to avoid leaving midway through an international camp without a formal approach, although that position would change if United put the papers on the table.
There shouldn’t be much uncertainty at Old Trafford for long. Chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox have traveled to Monaco for a scheduled meeting with Sir Jim Ratcliffe today, with Carrick’s future high on the agenda. Both are expected to recommend his dismissal.
Carrick arrived at Carrington as normal this morning but United sit 18th after picking up eight points from ten league games. They haven’t won in the Premier League since August and have managed just three wins in 15 games in all competitions – against Ipswich, Sabbah and last week’s late comeback against AS Roma.
A 4-4 draw with Aston Villa on Sunday, when United needed two stoppage-time goals to rescue a point, looks unlikely to have done enough to salvage it.
Pochettino has been here before without ever walking through the door. United considered him after Jose Mourinho left in 2018, before appointing Erik ten Hag in 2022 and again after Ten Hag’s sacking in 2024.
His CV still has plenty of familiarity with the Premier League after spells at Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea, with Paris Saint-Germain separating his two most recent English jobs. He moved into international management in 2024 and led the USA to the round of 16 at this summer’s World Cup on home soil.
US Soccer responded by tying him to 2030 and giving his staff a larger role in the federation’s technical structure. The agreement was presented as the start of the next stage of the American project, supported in part by external philanthropic funding.
Instead, it may leave US Soccer with a major compensation check, but another managerial headache as the 2030 plan is left in tatters.
Pochettino’s first hurdle in charge would be at Anfield after the international break.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at (email protected)