Mauricio Pochettino: The Manager Who Almost Joined Manchester United

For years it felt less like speculation and more like fate. One day, somehow, Mauricio Pochettino would walk out at Old Trafford as Manchester United manager.

That day never came. It might never come now.

Twice, United moved him to the front of the queue. Twice, the moment slipped away. Timing, politics, and a little bit of chaos each played their part, and Pochettino’s career veered off in other directions. Now, with the Argentine reinventing himself on the international stage with the United States at a home World Cup, the old storyline suddenly feels like a relic from another era.

The one that got away – twice

Wind back to 2018/19. Pochettino, at Tottenham, had built one of Europe’s most admired sides. United, reeling from the end of the Jose Mourinho cycle, turned to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as an interim. The plan was clear: Solskjaer would steady the ship, Pochettino would be the long-term architect.

Then Solskjaer started winning. Six on the bounce to begin with. The pivotal one came in north London, United beating Spurs at Wembley in mid-January. It wasn’t just a result; it was an audition hijacked. Solskjaer passed, Pochettino watched his moment tilt away.

By March, after that extraordinary Champions League comeback in Paris against PSG, United removed the “interim” tag and handed Solskjaer the job permanently. The season fizzled out, Tottenham surged all the way to the Champions League final, but the door at Old Trafford had already swung shut. Pochettino left Spurs a few months later with the sense that the train had roared past the platform.

It rolled back around in 2022. This time Pochettino was at PSG, chasing a Ligue 1 title in a spell that never quite caught fire. Again, United were in flux, this time with Ralf Rangnick holding the fort. Again, Pochettino’s name was right at the top of the list, locked in a two-horse race with Erik ten Hag.

United chose Ten Hag. History has not been kind to that decision.

Inside the club, football director John Murtough was said to be captivated by the Dutchman in talks. Pochettino, though, paints a more nuanced picture. Speaking recently, he explained how the timing boxed him in.

“I was under contract at PSG,” he said. “After our Champions League elimination against Real Madrid, we had no option but to make sure we secured the Ligue 1 title at the least.

“United were in a hurry to announce their new manager before the end of that season because the situation had become unsustainable. I couldn't negotiate, whereas Ajax gave Ten Hag the flexibility to do so.”

United needed speed. Ajax could afford patience. Ten Hag could step into negotiations; Pochettino could not. Once again, the stars refused to align.

Ferguson’s favourite, fate’s outsider

Pochettino has never been just another name on a shortlist at Old Trafford. Sir Alex Ferguson, the defining figure in the club’s modern history, admired him long before the wider public caught on.

Ferguson loved what he saw at Southampton: the pressing, the bravery, the clarity of the football. He made sure to get Pochettino’s number and invited him to dinner. It felt like a blessing, a quiet anointing of a man many assumed would one day inherit the home dugout.

Yet football moves fast, and reputations move with it. After leaving Tottenham, Pochettino’s stock dipped in some quarters. His time at PSG was seen as underwhelming, even if the context there rarely flatters a coach. His single season at Chelsea was messy in real time, but as the dust settles, that campaign looks a little better than it did in the moment.

Still, for those who had long imagined him at Old Trafford, the idea started to fade. The “destiny” line began to sound like nostalgia rather than prophecy.

Reinvented in red, white and blue

Now comes the twist. At 54, Pochettino has crossed the Atlantic and taken charge of the United States at a World Cup on home soil. It could easily have been a gentle semi-retirement, a soft landing after the bruises of club football at the very top.

Instead, he has turned the US into one of the tournament’s most compelling sides.

They play with a ferocity and edge that jumps off the screen. The pressing is sharp, the aggression controlled, the tempo relentless. At times they resemble a well-drilled European club more than a typical international team. The intensity has been unmatched so far in the competition, and the momentum around the hosts is building quickly.

If they sustain this level, a run to at least the quarter-finals looks entirely realistic. That kind of campaign, in that kind of spotlight, changes a manager’s market in an instant. For anyone who thought Pochettino’s time at the elite end of the club game had passed, this World Cup is a direct rebuttal.

His contract with the US runs only until the end of the tournament. He has said he is “open” to extending it, but the logic is brutal. Nothing he does with the national team will ever match this: a World Cup at home, a country leaning into the sport, a team mirroring his intensity. The Gold Cup will not stir the same emotions. It rarely does.

Walk away now and he re-enters the European scene with his reputation refreshed, his football modern and aggressive, his profile as high as it has been since that Champions League final run with Spurs.

United move on, Pochettino does too

The irony is that Pochettino’s resurgence may come just as United finally believe they have stability again.

Michael Carrick, appointed on a two-year deal after transforming the second half of last season, looks the right fit for where the club are trying to go. Calm, intelligent, tactically clear. A bridge between the club’s past and its future. United, for once, have got ahead of the curve.

Had Carrick stumbled, had United delayed their decision and allowed the summer to open up, the old speculation would have roared back to life. A World Cup-charged Pochettino, back on the market, with Ferguson’s admiration still echoing in the background? The story would have written itself.

Instead, it feels like a chapter that will remain unwritten. Pochettino, once the heir apparent, now looks destined to chase different peaks, at different clubs, in different leagues.

Old Trafford’s home dugout, the one he seemed born to occupy, may forever be the great “what if” of his managerial career.