Mauricio Pochettino taking charge of Manchester United is a story 10 years in the making, coming at the seventh time lucky by some counts.
United’s dalliance with Pochettino stretches back to May 2016, when he and Sir Alex Ferguson went for lunch at Scott’s in Mayfair, London. They famously shared a £114 bottle of Brunello di Montalcino red wine.
What can now be revealed is how close Pochettino got to actually being offered the United job back then. That spring, Ferguson supported a plan for United to hire Pochettino, who was, at the time, leading Tottenham Hotspur in a title challenge against Leicester City. Sources at United, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, sensed Pochettino was agreeable to the move. It is their understanding that an exit clause existed in Pochettino’s contract, rendering negotiations with Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy moot.
But Avram Glazer intervened as Spurs slipped out of contention to win the Premier League, finishing third. United’s co-owner instead advocated for a manager who had a track record of the biggest trophies, so in came Jose Mourinho to replace Louis van Gaal, with the news brutally emerging as United were lifting the FA Cup at Wembley.
Mourinho’s candidacy had been reported since February as Van Gaal’s tenure plunged into jeopardy, but in the background, Pochettino was seen as a viable alternative appointment.
Ferguson’s dinner date with Pochettino on May 10, five days before the end of that season, with Leicester City already crowned champions ahead of runners-up Arsenal, was a public endorsement of a private belief from United’s great manager that the Argentine could one day assume his place in the dugout at Old Trafford.
The positive feeling was mutual. In his biography, Brave New World, Pochettino details how he was in the Camp Nou in 1999 to witness United beating Bayern Munich in the most dramatic manner, and that memory inspired him to write Ferguson’s name 28 times in the book, more than any other person.
The author Guillem Balague wrote on X on Tuesday: “Spurs tried to push back and cut those references. Pochettino and I talked it over and decided that none of it would be touched. That shows how much it mattered to him.”
Pochettino was once asked to name the top three Premier League managers he would like to have played under. “Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Alex Ferguson,” came the reply.
Ferguson’s admiration of Pochettino has been a consistent theme of the subsequent decade, although his backing of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in December 2018, when Mourinho was sacked at United, helped swing that appointment the Norwegian’s way on an interim basis initially.
Pochettino’s name came up then again, but he had signed a new Tottenham contract in May that removed any exit clauses and, due to his loyalty to Tottenham and Levy, he vowed never to agitate. Real Madrid came in for him two weeks after he signed that upgraded Spurs deal, when looking for a successor to Zinedine Zidane, but he refused their request to ask to leave.
By this point, Pochettino had met Ed Woodward, United’s executive vice-chairman, who essentially ran the club’s football operation. Woodward was said to greatly admire Pochettino and so, once again, in November 2019, when he was sacked by Spurs, people close to United asked questions about him joining the club now he was a free agent. But Solskjaer was secure at that stage, a few months into his permanent reign.
The closest Pochettino came to the job before now was May 2022, when he was Paris Saint-Germain head coach and was one of the final two candidates to become United manager after Ralf Rangnick’s tumultuous interim spell.
Pochettino had video interviews with chief executive Richard Arnold, football director John Murtough, and even Joel Glazer. Darren Fletcher, then United’s technical director, was part of the process from a football perspective. Fletcher has since been a first-team coach at United and is now in charge of the under-18s.
In the end, United chose Erik ten Hag, whose attention to detail on tactical elements and rigorous commitment to the role shone through. His Ajax team were playing some of the most attractive football in Europe, he had won the Eredivisie, and United fans showed a preference towards him.
Pochettino’s approach then was more about building a culture at the club and togetherness among players. He appreciated data, for instance, but felt getting the vibe right at the training ground was important.
United were also said to be wary about entering into negotiations with PSG, who had flexed their muscles when Madrid again came calling in June 2021 by triggering the extension in Pochettino’s contract. That meant compensation for Pochettino would be significant, whereas Ajax, whose chief executive was the former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, were open to talking. As fortunes had it, PSG parted ways with Pochettino that July.
As a side note, it is a quirk that the two managers who oversaw that dramatic Champions League semi-final in 2019, when Tottenham came back from 3-0 down on aggregate against Ajax by scoring three goals in the final 40 minutes of the tie, might both end up including Manchester United on their managerial CV.
United again interviewed Pochettino after the 2024 FA Cup final, when Ten Hag’s position was in major doubt, and he was seen as a credible candidate initially but did not progress to the final round, which included Thomas Tuchel and Roberto De Zerbi.
Pochettino did not give the best version of himself at that time, worn down by the difficult working conditions at PSG and Chelsea. He experienced major player factions at PSG and had issues guiding Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, while at Chelsea he experienced the start of the breakdown in relations between co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali.
In that 2023-24 season at Stamford Bridge, he did recover from a bad start to win his last five games of the campaign to finish sixth, qualifying for the Conference League. Cole Palmer had his breakthrough season, scoring 25 goals in all competitions following his £40million transfer from Manchester City.
United ended up extending Ten Hag’s contract, but when his position again became shaky that autumn, Pochettino remained in the thoughts of those at the club. A shortlist drawn up by then-sporting director Dan Ashworth, technical director Jason Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada had Pochettino featuring prominently.
The list detailed potential costs associated, and pros and cons. Pochettino ticked all the boxes for experience, commitment to youth and style of play, but fell down on silverware. He won Ligue 1 with PSG in 2022. Pochettino had, by October 2024, when Ten Hag was dismissed, taken charge of the USMNT for two matches and no pursuit materialised because Ruben Amorim was the chosen candidate, supported by Berrada.
United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe met Amorim and wanted him brought to United.
Pochettino has met Ratcliffe, too, and his history with the Glazers, the American co-owners who will have seen the way he led the USMNT at the World Cup, cannot be discounted either in him finally being on his way to take the reins at Manchester United. Multiple sources say he is completely reinvigorated from his spell in charge of the United States, who made a strong impression at the World Cup before exiting badly to Belgium amid the Folarin Balogun episode.
Leading United will be a whole other challenge. He has waited a decade to take it on.
