Manchester United have finally got their man on the phone, and this time he wants to pick up. Mauricio Pochettino is ready to accept an offer to become United's next head coach, BBC Sport reports, with Michael Carrick expected to be relieved of his duties within the next 48 hours.
It has been a long courtship. United spoke to the Argentine when Jose Mourinho was sacked in 2018, again in 2022 before they went for Erik ten Hag, and a third time when Ten Hag was let go in 2024. Three near misses. The fourth looks different.
The Monaco meeting that decides Carrick's fate
Carrick's future is being settled in Monaco on Wednesday, where chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox are meeting co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. It is one of their regular, planned strategy sessions, but this one has a single item that matters. The expectation is that Berrada and Wilcox will recommend the head coach goes.
Carrick, 45, was still pictured arriving at Carrington on Wednesday morning. The numbers behind the meeting are brutal: United sit 18th, inside the relegation zone, with one win from their first 10 Premier League games and nothing since August. You have to go back to 1986-87, when they were 20th, to find the club this low at this stage of a top-flight season.
Why Pochettino is waiting politely
Pochettino only signed his current USA contract in August, and he wants to stay respectful to the US Soccer Federation. He will wait for United to make an official approach once Carrick's position is clarified. Prising him out will cost United $10m (£7.5m).
The timing is awkward. The USA play a two-legged Concacaf Nations League quarter-final against Haiti over the next week, and walking out mid-camp would not look great. According to the BBC's Simon Stone, one source says terms are more or less agreed, and United could decide whether the 54-year-old stays with the USA for those games. If he does, he faces a sharp turnaround from a Tuesday night match, which ends in the early hours of Wednesday, to Carrington, with United due at Anfield to face Liverpool on 22 November.
Talking to the next man before the current one goes
It feels grubby, negotiating with a replacement while the incumbent is still turning up to work. It is also how football has long operated. Mourinho had agreed a United contract in 2016 before Louis van Gaal was sacked, and Manchester City replaced Mark Hughes with Roberto Mancini almost instantly in 2009.
Pochettino's CV hardly needs reading out. Southampton from January 2013, five years at Tottenham from 2014 including a Champions League final, Paris St-Germain from January 2021 to July 2022, then a season at Chelsea in 2023-24. He took the USA job in September 2024 and led the co-hosts to the last 16 of the 2026 World Cup. Whether he is the cure for a club sitting 18th is a different question. But United have wanted him for the best part of a decade, and he now seems to want them back.
Manager context: Mauricio Pochettino, 54, USA head coach since September 2024, contract signed August 2026, release fee $10m (£7.5m). Michael Carrick, 45, expected to leave within 48 hours. Man Utd 18th after 10 games. Next fixture: Liverpool v Man Utd, Anfield, 22 November. Source: BBC Sport.
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