Manchester United Pursue Pochettino as Carrick Faces Dismissal

Manchester United are closing in on a deal to bring Mauricio Pochettino to Old Trafford, with Michael Carrick expected to be sacked on the recommendation of the club’s new powerbrokers.

Jason Wilcox, the director of football, and chief executive Omar Berrada have advised Sir Jim Ratcliffe that Carrick should be removed, and Pochettino installed as head coach. Ratcliffe, the minority owner who now calls the shots on sporting policy, is being briefed in Monaco, where the case for change is being put in blunt terms.

Inside the dressing room, the mood has already shifted. Players increasingly believe Carrick is gone, and that Pochettino is the man coming in. The expectation is not vague; it is specific. They think it will be Pochettino, the former Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea manager, now in charge of the US men’s national team.

Pochettino wants it too. Despite his current role with the USMNT, he is keen on the United job if, as anticipated, Carrick is dismissed.

The formal machinery is already turning. A United board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, with one or more of the six Glazer siblings – still the majority owners – represented. Within the executive structure, and even in Carrick’s own camp, there is an assumption that the meeting will rubber-stamp his sacking. The club are then expected to move quickly towards an announcement.

Money will not be a trivial detail. Pochettino’s US contract includes a release clause of about $10m (£7.5m). The bill for United is likely to climb if the Argentinian brings his trusted inner circle, led by Jesús Pérez, the assistant and confidant who has stood beside him for 16 years. United know that hiring Pochettino means hiring a full operation, not just a head coach.

The timing is awkward. Pochettino is preparing to lead the US in Concacaf Nations League matches against Haiti on Saturday and Wednesday, in Miami and Cincinnati. Those games mark the first competitive steps of the 2030 World Cup qualifying cycle for the Americans, yet his name is dominating headlines thousands of miles away.

All of this swirls around a simple truth: Carrick’s United have collapsed out of the blocks.

The club sit 18th in the table, marooned in the relegation zone after a wretched start. Carrick, 45, has managed just one league victory – against Ipswich in August – and only three wins in all competitions. The nadir so far came with a Carabao Cup exit to Brighton in September, a defeat that stripped away any illusion of stability.

What began as a patient project under a young coach has turned into a crisis that United’s new hierarchy no longer seem willing to tolerate. Ratcliffe wanted control of football decisions; this would be his most decisive one yet.

If United push the button this week, Carrick’s brief tenure will end with the club staring up the table, and Pochettino will be asked to walk into another Premier League firestorm. The question now is not whether change is coming, but how quickly United can turn a looming dismissal into a fresh start.