Manchester United in Talks with Mauricio Pochettino as Carrick Faces Exit
Manchester United have opened formal talks with USA head coach Mauricio Pochettino as Michael Carrick edges towards the exit, with his future set to be decided at a high‑level meeting in Monaco on Wednesday.
Chief executive Omar Berrada, director of football Jason Wilcox and co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe will gather in the principality for what is officially billed as one of their regular strategy sessions. In reality, the central item on the agenda is stark: whether Carrick survives the week.
The expectation inside the club is that he will not.
Carrick on the brink
Carrick was photographed arriving at United’s Carrington training base on Wednesday morning, still in post but increasingly isolated. His team sit 18th in the Premier League, marooned in the relegation zone after winning just one of their first 10 league games and none since August.
This is not just a bad start. It is historically bad. United have not been this low at this stage of a top-flight season since 1986-87, when they were 20th. That campaign ended with Ron Atkinson’s dismissal and the arrival of Sir Alex Ferguson. The echoes are hard to ignore.
Berrada and Wilcox are understood to be ready to recommend that Carrick is removed. The Monaco summit is expected to rubber-stamp that view and trigger the next phase of United’s latest rebuild.
Pochettino talks step up
That next phase, United hope, will be led by Mauricio Pochettino.
The club have already opened discussions with the former Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea manager about returning to the Premier League, this time at Old Trafford. It is not the first time United have turned to him. Far from it.
Pochettino has been on United’s radar for years. They sounded him out when Jose Mourinho was sacked in 2018, again in 2022 before appointing Erik ten Hag, and once more when Ten Hag himself was dismissed in 2024. Three near-misses. A fourth attempt is now under way.
This time, the obstacle is not availability but cost and timing.
Pochettino renewed his contract with the USA in August and is preparing for a two-legged Concacaf Nations League quarter-final against Haiti over the coming week. Any move would require United to trigger a $10m (£7.5m) release clause in his deal with the US federation.
For a club already wrestling with the financial and sporting consequences of repeated managerial changes, it is a significant decision. But the scale of the crisis on the pitch is driving the urgency off it.
A long courtship
United’s fascination with Pochettino stems from his Premier League body of work.
He arrived at Southampton in January 2013 and quickly imposed a bold, front-foot style that caught the eye of the league’s elite. Tottenham moved for him in 2014 and over five seasons he turned Spurs into a consistent top-four side, culminating in a run to the Champions League final in 2019.
He did not land a league title in England, but he built teams with identity, intensity and clear structure – three qualities United have been chasing, and repeatedly losing, in the post-Ferguson years.
After leaving north London, Pochettino took charge of Paris St-Germain from January 2021 to July 2022, managing a dressing room of superstars and the expectations that come with it. He returned to England for the 2023-24 season at Chelsea, navigating a turbulent, scattershot squad rebuild before moving into international football.
In September 2024 he accepted the USA job and guided the World Cup co-hosts to the last 16 of the 2026 tournament, adding another layer of experience to an already varied résumé.
United at another crossroads
Berrada and Wilcox’s trip to Monaco was initially framed as part of a series of planned strategic meetings to shape the club’s direction. The timing, though, leaves little doubt about the weight of what will be decided there.
Carrick’s tenure, once seen as a bridge to stability, has instead become another chapter in a decade-long search for a manager capable of restoring United to the top. With the team sinking and the mood around the club darkening, the hierarchy has moved back towards a familiar name.
Pochettino has been the one that got away for United on three separate occasions. Now, with the club staring at their lowest league position in almost 40 years, the question is simple: do they finally pay the price to bring him in and hand him the keys to the latest rebuild, or risk watching him slip through their fingers yet again?
