Manchester United are reported to have all but agreed terms with United States coach Mauricio Pochettino to succeed head coach Michael Carrick, whose dismissal had not been announced by the club at the time of the latest reports. BBC Sport says Pochettino, 54, is ready to accept an offer from United, and the Evening Standard reports that a deal has been finalised.
A club in the relegation zone
United are 18th in our table on eight points from ten games: one win, five draws and four defeats, with 14 goals scored and 19 conceded. BBC Sport adds that the only win came in August and that 18th is United's lowest position after ten top-flight games since 1986-87, when they were 20th.
The decision was due at a meeting on Wednesday in Monaco involving chief executive Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox (director of football) and co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. BBC Sport expected Berrada and Wilcox to recommend dismissal, with the club wanting to tell Carrick face to face. The Standard says the meeting decided he would go and that he is expected to be told at the club's Carrington training base on Thursday. The next coach's first game is at Liverpool, fourth on 18 points, on 22 November.
Who Pochettino is
Pochettino knows English football. BBC Sport lists Southampton from January 2013, then a five-year spell at Tottenham from 2014 that took in a Champions League final, Paris Saint-Germain from January 2021 to July 2022, Chelsea in 2023-24 and, since September 2024, the United States, whom he took to the last 16 of the 2026 World Cup. United have talked to him before: BBC Sport says they did so when Jose Mourinho was sacked in 2018, in 2022 before appointing Erik ten Hag, and again when ten Hag was sacked in 2024.
One United player has a history with him. In 2019, with Pochettino at Tottenham, captain Bruno Fernandes was still at Sporting. Fernandes told The Athletic that Pochettino "was the one who wanted me there", but Sporting refused the offer and he joined United six months later, the Standard recalls.
The price and the calendar
Pochettino signed an extension with US Soccer in August, and BBC Sport says United would have to pay $10m (£7.5m) to release him. The Athletic, quoted by the Standard, reports that United have made formal contact with the federation. It also reports that U.S. Soccer is expected to make former Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola its top target as a replacement. The release clause does not cover Pochettino's coaching staff, such as assistant Jesus Perez, the Standard notes.
Timing is the open question. The USA play Haiti over two legs on 14 and 18 November. BBC Sport says the federation's succession plan raises the possibility that Pochettino will not take charge of those games, while the Standard reports he is likely to stay for them. The second leg is in the early hours of 18 November UK time, which would leave only a few days before the trip to Anfield.
Until the club makes an announcement, both the dismissal and the appointment remain reports rather than confirmed facts.
