Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s future may already be a concern for the United States men\u2019s national team, barely three months into a project designed to shape the game far beyond the senior side.<\/p>\n
After a disappointing 2026 World Cup on home soil, the USMNT were expected to build on a promising opening before controversy, not of their own making, and then a failed response to their first real examination in the round of 16.<\/p>\n
Pochettino was brought in not simply as a head coach, but as a figure tasked to \u201cadvise and support U.S. Soccer on the broader development of the full national team pathway, youth soccer, coaching education, professional league collaboration and other technical facets.\u201d That wider remit is now under threat because one of football\u2019s biggest jobs may be about to open up.<\/p>\n
Manchester United have emerged as a serious possibility. Nothing has been confirmed, but there is an expectation that CEO Omar Berrada and sporting director Jason Wilcox will recommend to Sir Jim Ratcliffe later this week that Michael Carrick be dismissed. The club is understood to be moving towards a permanent appointment rather than another interim solution.<\/p>\n
BBC Sport has described Pochettino as \u201copen\u201d to the idea, while reports suggest his contract with U.S. Soccer contains a buyout clause that can be activated for \u201cspecific high-profile jobs\u201d. The Athletic has put that figure at $10 million, with millions more potentially required to bring across his preferred staff.<\/p>\n
Pochettino\u2019s standing in English football remains high. Since his surprise move to Southampton in 2013, he has built a reputation that includes transforming the Saints into a Premier League force, guiding Tottenham Hotspur to repeated Champions League qualification and the 2019 final, and winning three trophies in 18 months at Paris Saint-Germain before a more difficult spell at Chelsea in 2023\u201324.<\/p>\n
Manchester United\u2019s interest is not new. He has surfaced repeatedly over the last decade, from the speculation that followed his dinner with Sir Alex Ferguson in 2016 to fresh links in 2018, 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n
The timing is awkward for the USMNT, who face Haiti in the two-legged Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals on Nov. 14 in Miami and three days later in Cincinnati. United, meanwhile, need a replacement in place before their Premier League match against Liverpool on Nov. 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pochettino\u2019s United links could disrupt USMNT preparations before key November matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[1836,182],"class_list":["post-22353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}