Mauricio Pochettino and Manchester United: A Story of Missed Opportunities

There was a time when Mauricio Pochettino to Manchester United felt less like a rumour and more like a spoiler alert. Twice he stood on the brink of the Old Trafford dugout. Twice the moment slipped away. Now, with the Argentine reinventing himself on the international stage, that long‑mooted union looks further away than ever.

The job that never came

Pochettino has never hidden the pull of United. Speaking to Four Four Two before leading the United States into a home World Cup, he was frank: “United have always shown interest, but the ideal scenario to manage there has never quite materialised.” That line could double as the tagline for his relationship with the club.

The first great near-miss came in 2018/19. Pochettino, then at Tottenham, was widely viewed as the coming man. United had just sacked Jose Mourinho and installed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as caretaker, the Norwegian supposedly a bridge to a more permanent appointment in the summer. Pochettino was the favourite, the logical choice, the long-term project manager.

Then Solskjaer started winning. And kept winning.

A run of six straight victories, capped by a statement win away at Tottenham in mid-January, changed the mood. That day at Wembley, Solskjaer didn’t just beat Spurs; he beat the idea of Pochettino at Old Trafford. The momentum shifted, the narrative hardened. When United produced their improbable comeback away to Paris Saint-Germain in March, the decision was sealed. Solskjaer got the job permanently.

The irony? United’s season fizzled out, Spurs reached the Champions League final, and Pochettino’s stock remained sky-high. Yet his window at Old Trafford had already closed. A few months later, he was out of Tottenham.

Ten Hag wins the race

The second sliding door came in 2022. Pochettino, now at PSG, was grinding his way towards the Ligue 1 title in a spell that never quite convinced. United, again drifting with an interim in Ralf Rangnick, had narrowed their search to two names: Erik ten Hag and Pochettino.

From the outside, it looked like a straight shootout. Inside the club, football director John Murtough was said to have been particularly impressed by Ten Hag in talks. United chose the Ajax coach. The years since have not been kind to that decision.

Pochettino’s version of events adds an important detail.

“I was under contract at PSG,” he recalled. After the Champions League exit to Real Madrid, his remit was clear: secure the Ligue 1 title, at the very least. United, he says, “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.”

Timing again. United’s urgency, Ajax’s willingness, PSG’s demands. The pieces fell against him.

Ferguson’s favourite that never was

Inside Old Trafford’s corridors, Pochettino always had one powerful admirer. Sir Alex Ferguson saw something in him early, long before the PSG and Chelsea chapters. He watched Pochettino’s Southampton press and harry and play with courage, and he liked what he saw. So much so that he sought out the Argentine’s number and arranged a dinner.

From that point on, the sense grew: one day, Pochettino would manage Manchester United. It felt inevitable.

It no longer does. His departure from Tottenham, the uneven stint at PSG, and a single turbulent season at Chelsea all chipped away at the aura. For a while, the narrative around him hardened into something more sceptical: yesterday’s man, a nearly coach whose peak had passed in north London.

Yet even that reading is starting to age badly. His Chelsea season, chaotic at the time, looks more respectable in hindsight given what followed. And now comes the World Cup.

Reborn with the United States

If there were doubts about whether Pochettino still belonged at the elite end of the game, this tournament is answering them. His United States side have brought a snarling intensity and clear tactical structure that few others have matched. They press like a top European club team, attack with aggression, and play with a clarity that speaks of serious coaching.

The hosts have gathered momentum. They look like a team that can run deep – quarter-finals at least feels like a realistic target if they maintain this level. On home soil, with a nation behind them and a clear identity on the pitch, Pochettino has reminded Europe exactly who he is.

And clubs are watching. They always do at World Cups, but this time the focus is as much on the man on the touchline as the players on the pitch.

His contract with the US runs only to the end of the tournament. He has said he is “open” to extending, yet the logic points the other way. Nothing will top leading the United States through a World Cup at home. The Gold Cup will not carry the same electricity. For a coach with Pochettino’s ambition, this feels like a staging post, not a destination.

United move on

All of which brings the story back, inevitably, to Old Trafford. Pochettino could soon be back on the market. United, again, have just made a change.

Michael Carrick, after his impressive work in the second half of last season, has been handed a two-year deal. It looks, on the face of it, a smart and coherent appointment. Carrick steadied a listing ship, imposed a structure, and reconnected a fractured squad with the basics of control and discipline.

If he had stumbled, if United had hesitated, if they had allowed the summer to arrive with a vacancy and Pochettino on the rise at a home World Cup, the conversation would be different. The old prophecy might have flickered back into life.

Instead, the club has moved in a new direction with a new head coach. Pochettino, for all those years of being “the next United manager”, stands on the outside once more, his path now seemingly leading back to the European club game – just not to the one destination that once felt written in the stars.

Sometimes football delivers on its sense of inevitability. Sometimes it doesn’t. For Mauricio Pochettino and Manchester United, the story now feels less like a delayed appointment and more like a chapter that will never be written.