Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s unexpected link to the Manchester United job would carry consequences well beyond Old Trafford. The Argentine only recently committed to the USMNT with a contract extension through the 2030 World Cup, yet a release clause in that deal could still give him a route back into club management in England.<\/p>\n
In April, Pochettino made clear how strongly he felt about a Premier League return. \u201cOne day, yes because I really like England,\u201d Mauricio Pochettino said when asked if he wanted to go back. \u201cI think my human profile and coach profile match very well with the Premier League and with the culture, the idea, the idiosyncrasy and the philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four months later, he extended his stay with the United States, but reports now suggest the door to Manchester has opened. Michael Carrick is reportedly set to be fired before domestic action resumes in two weeks, and Pochettino has emerged as an unexpected frontrunner.<\/p>\n
For U.S. Soccer, the timing would be awkward at best. Pochettino only led the team through a strong fall window, winning all four games against Chile, Peru, Mexico and Canada. He then steered the side into the next phase of preparations, where the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals against Haiti are due in November.<\/p>\n
If he were to leave now, the Americans would be left answering questions about his future while trying to focus on the pitch. More importantly, they would be forced into a sudden change of direction without a clear succession plan.<\/p>\n
That would be a sharp contrast to the progress made under Pochettino. The USMNT developed a harder edge during the World Cup, playing with aggression, control and intensity. That identity grew stronger during the autumn internationals, even with a number of new faces involved.<\/p>\n
His new contract also tied him to the federation\u2019s youth work. \u201cWe are excited by the opportunity to bring all our experience and knowledge to even more areas of U.S. Soccer while helping strengthen the pathways for players, coaches and teams across the federation,\u201d Pochettino said upon signing his new deal in August.<\/p>\n
U.S. Soccer CEO and secretary general JT Batson added: \u201cMauricio and his staff believe in the future of soccer in the United States and our new project allows us to build on progress of the USMNT and the momentum of U.S. Soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n
That wider commitment has already been reflected in his selections, with 13 uncapped players called up for the fall friendlies, including eight teenagers. Cavan Sullivan, Julian Hall and Justin Ellis all impressed enough to remain in the picture for November, underlining how central Pochettino is to the next stage of the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A possible United move for Pochettino would force the USMNT into an abrupt and risky reset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[59,182],"class_list":["post-22394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","tag-featured","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22394","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=22394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}