Mauricio Pochettino: The Manchester United Job That Eluded Him

For years it felt like a script already written: Mauricio Pochettino, walking out at Old Trafford as Manchester United manager. Twice the stars seemed to align. Twice the club turned away. Now, with the Argentine rebuilding his reputation on the World Cup stage, that long‑talked‑about union looks further away than ever.

The job that always slipped away

Pochettino has been Manchester United’s nearly man. The one they courted, studied, admired – but never chose.

He knows it, too. Speaking to Four Four Two before leading the United States into a home World Cup, he put it bluntly: United’s interest was real, the timing never was. The “ideal scenario” simply never arrived.

The first big moment came in 2018/19. Pochettino, at Tottenham, was widely seen as the favourite to take over at the end of the season. United had just handed the reins to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on an interim basis. It was supposed to be a stopgap. A holding pattern before the big decision.

Then Solskjaer started winning. Six victories on the bounce, including a statement result away at Tottenham in mid-January. That afternoon was pivotal. Pochettino, in the opposite dugout, watched the man meant to be keeping the seat warm effectively seize the job from him.

When United stunned Paris Saint-Germain in March, the mood around Solskjaer became irresistible. He got the permanent contract. Pochettino, despite leading Spurs to a Champions League final that same season, saw his moment evaporate. By the time he left Tottenham a few months later, United had moved on.

Round two: Ten Hag wins the race

The second near-miss came in 2022. Pochettino, in charge of PSG, was grinding towards the Ligue 1 title in a spell that never quite caught fire. United, again in the market, had Ralf Rangnick in interim charge and a shortlist led by two names: Pochettino and Erik ten Hag.

From the outside, it looked like a straight shootout. United eventually landed on Ten Hag, a decision that has aged badly. The word at the time was that football director John Murtough had been particularly impressed with the Dutchman in talks.

Pochettino’s version adds a different shade. He was under contract at PSG, and after a brutal Champions League exit to Real Madrid, he still had a title to lock down. United, he says, were desperate to move quickly. The situation at Old Trafford had become “unsustainable” and they wanted their man in place before the season ended.

He couldn’t negotiate. Ten Hag could. Ajax gave their coach the room to talk. PSG did not extend the same freedom. Once again, Pochettino watched the job he had long been linked with slip away on a technicality of timing and circumstance.

Ferguson’s admiration, destiny denied

Inside Old Trafford, Pochettino has never been just another name on a shortlist. Sir Alex Ferguson has long been an admirer. The Scot was taken with Pochettino’s work at Southampton, the intensity and organisation of that side. He was impressed enough to seek out the Argentine’s number and invite him to dinner.

That kind of endorsement carries weight in Manchester. For a while, it fed the sense of inevitability. Pochettino at United felt like only a matter of time.

Now it feels like a door that has quietly closed.

His stock dipped after leaving Spurs. The PSG spell did little to repair it. Even his single season at Chelsea, messy in the moment, only started to look respectable once the dust settled and others tried – and struggled – to do better with a similarly chaotic set-up.

World Cup revival in the USA dugout

If anyone thought Pochettino’s time at the elite end of the game had run its course, this World Cup is challenging that idea.

His United States team have hit the tournament with a ferocity few expected. They press with club-level cohesion, play with a sharp edge, and carry themselves less like hosts happy to be there and more like a hardened European side intent on going deep.

The intensity stands out. So does the aggression. There is momentum behind the USA now, and if they keep this level, a quarter-final place looks within reach. That kind of run, on home soil, under global scrutiny, is exactly the sort of stage that reshapes a manager’s reputation.

Pochettino’s contract with the US national team ends when this World Cup does. He has said he is “open” to extending it, but the logic points the other way. Nothing in the CONCACAF calendar – not even the Gold Cup – will come close to the emotional weight of leading the hosts through a World Cup in their own country.

Walk away now, and he returns to the European market refreshed, repackaged, and in demand.

United move on – again

The twist is that his timing may once more be out of sync with Old Trafford.

Manchester United have just made another appointment. Michael Carrick, handed a two-year contract after an impressive second half of last season, looks like the right man for where the club currently stand. A steadying influence, a modern coach with a clear idea, and someone the players trust.

Had Carrick stumbled, had United delayed, Pochettino’s World Cup surge might have pushed his name back to the top of the list. The narrative could have circled back for a third act.

Instead, it feels as though the club and the coach are finally on different paths. Pochettino is positioning himself for a return to a major European bench. United, for once, are not in the market.

For a decade, the question lingered: when, not if, Mauricio Pochettino would sit in the home dugout at Old Trafford. Now the more honest question is this: has that chance quietly gone for good?