Mauricio Pochettino’s presumed arrival at Manchester United and the circumstances around it bring to mind another everyman hero of the American public who tackled a titanic sporting challenge.
When Homer Simpson informed his long-suffering wife Marge of his intention to take up boxing, she replied: “Hmmmm, Homer. Of all the crazy ideas you’ve had, this one ranks somewhere in the middle.”
Which feels like a fitting sentiment for Pochettino’s departure from the United States men’s national team to join the besieged 20-time English champions. Sure, United have had worse ideas than this appointment over the past decade or so. Plenty of them, in fact. And their season so far – one win from 10 Premier League games, 18th in the table, chastening Carabao Cup and Champions League defeats – has at times felt about as fruitful as Homer trying to topple feared heavyweight champion Drederick Tatum at Springfield Coliseum.
But is this really the best idea for all involved?
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Why do Manchester United want Mauricio Pochettino?
Even considering the $10million compensation fee to be incurred on the back of the new contract Pochettino signed with U.S. Soccer mere months ago, it’s understandable United have gone down this route.
Since his magnificent five years at Tottenham, the 54-year-old has been regarded as an elite operator. He is noted for an uncompromising, high-pressing style, and fans will relish the prospect of him whipping an ailing United squad into shape.
As seen most recently in his handling of USMNT stars such as Christian Pulisic, Pochettino also has no qualms when it comes to laying down the law for underperforming stars.
Michael Carrick’s lightness of touch and good-guy approach had obvious benefits in the wake of the dogmatic and uncompromising Ruben Amorim. But the sense of a talented but uneven United squad having a soft underbelly is back. Pochettino’s teams are fit and work hard; that’s a non-negotiable.
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The United players were booed off after Carrick was cheered in the 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth last month. Even though the team and their manager got some acclaim after last weekend’s rollercoaster 4-4 draw with Aston Villa, supporters on the Stretford End hollered, “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” after the visitors took an early 2-0 lead. Much-maligned full-back Diogo Dalot was ironically cheered and then booed from the field.
The atmosphere at Old Trafford – all of it cloaked by disquiet with the Glazer family’s catastrophic stewardship of the club – is febrile and Pochettino is a man with the personality and authority to take hold of that.
After his acclaimed spells with Southampton and Spurs, Pochettino returned to the Premier League to take charge of Chelsea in 2023/24. There are useful parallels here to the United job, in that he took over amid a chaotic boardroom situation. It was not a banner year, but a sixth-place finish and reaching the Carabao Cup final amounted to a solid body of work. As has been the case with all his clubs and the USMNT, Chelsea were in a better place when Pochettino left than when he picked them up.
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Why does Pochettino want to join Manchester United?
There is one obvious and completely seductive answer to this. After the years of drift, waste and underachievement that have followed Sir Alex Ferguson’s 2013 departure, being the man who brings back the good times to Manchester United would be a legacy-securing, legend-making achievement.
You could say the same for catching Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Just because the best-case scenario would set you up for life doesn’t mean it’s a sensible thing to pursue.
Beyond the potential for cinematically glorious moments, Pochettino should have thought long and hard about whether he really wants this. All of this Manchester United.
We’ve seen the movie before. Pochettino will come in and oversee a sharp upturn in form. Carrick beat Manchester City and Arsenal in his first two games, for heaven’s sake. United will probably to be somewhere near European contention and maybe have a good FA Cup run. Then it gets really hard.
The cult of the manager at United is strong. After the storied deeds of Ferguson and Sir Matt Busby, this is a club that subscribes to the great man of history theory, even as the modern game frequently rejects it in this era of head coaches and (in United’s case, hated) directors of football. Once Pochettino gets United on an upward trajectory, the talk will start. The pundit space dominated by United and Ferguson acolytes will be unable to contain itself. This is the man to restore the glory days.
At that point, Pochettino will be grabbing hold of the beast and hanging on as results take a downturn; players are branded feckless wasters and protests against the owners turn Old Trafford green and gold again. It’s a really weird sensation, observing the club where no one ever really blames the manager but no manager ever really succeeds.
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Is this Pochettino, the 54-year-old who has been around the block and made his money and reputation, ready for that? The fearless, fired-up Marcelo Bielsa disciple who took Southampton to an unanticipated new level in quick time and then made Spurs an essential part of the Premier League drama as Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp ruled the roost — that guy would be ready. No doubt.
But the Pochettino whose career has since been decent, yet drifting? The man who bided his time for a big job, only to take on Paris Saint-Germain at the height of their Mbappe-Neymar-Messi experiment, who recently committed to four years out of the cut and thrust of elite club football with his new U.S. Soccer contract. The United States played in the fearless, front-footed Pochettino style at the World Cup, meaning his knack for getting buy-in from players remains intact. But a Round of 16 exit was par. He was out-thought by Belgium boss Rudi Garcia, a man hardly considered to be on the cutting edge.
Pochettino was once upon a time. But it’s hard to make the case that he is anymore, as he u-turns on the comfortable life to rejoin the Premier League rat race. The Pochettino of 2013-2019? That person is probably Fabian Hurzeler now, or maybe Andoni Iraola.
Appointing Pochettino in 2026 could repeat United’s mistake of bringing in Louis van Gaal in 2014 or Jose Mourinho in 2016. An unquestionably elite coach who has been among the very best, but who is now on the other side of the career mountain, navigating the downslope.
A coach at that stage, assuming Pochettino is, can oversee instant improvements at United that can be sustained over the short and perhaps medium term. But the business of breaking the cycle that has accounted for Carrick, Mourinho and all those in between needs something that right now looks to be beyond him.
