Joe Prince-Wright – NBC Sports
Mauricio Pochettino wants to be the new manager of Manchester United, according to multiple reports.
Pochettino, 49, is the current manager at Paris Saint-Germain but several reports (including this one from the Manchester Evening News. are reporting that he’s keen to take charge at Old Trafford now. talkSPORT go as far as reporting that Pochettino is ‘desperate’ to take charge at United.
Previously it had been reported that United will wait until the end of the 2021-22 season to appoint a new manager.
According to our partners in the UK at Sky Sports, Pochettino is United’s number one target to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Ajax boss Erik ten Hag is also high on their list and both he and Pochettino will have one year left on their current deals when next summer rolls around.
With PSG pushing to win the UEFA Champions League under Pochettino this season, it’s likely he’ll try to see out the campaign with Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe leading the charge.
If you start to connect the dots, it all makes sense.
Dominoes starting to fall
Manchester United have already confirmed they will hire an interim manager for the rest of the 2021-22 campaign ahead of appointing a new manager. However, if they do that and don’t hire Pochettino now, do they run the risk of missing out on him in the summer?
It could also be a smart move to delay appointing a new boss as executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward is expected to leave in early 2022 and a new leader of the football side of the club, plus a new direction, will be ushered in before a new manager is appointed.
But if Pochettino leaves PSG, Zinedine Zidane could then replace him at PSG and that could keep the likes of Mbappe around longer.
Man United gets a great manager with a strong identity. Pochettino gets a move back to the Premier League. Zidane gets one of the top jobs in the world. PSG gets a proven winner and they may be able to hold on to Mbappe.
Again, everybody wins. This all makes too much sense, which means it may not happen.
Pochettino the perfect fit for Man United
But if it does, it will rectify the mistake which United made back in December 2018.
They should have gone all out to hire Pochettino from Tottenham then and they should have paid whatever they had to to make that happen.
Instead they went for a caretaker boss in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and three years later, here we are.
United finished in the top four in each of the last two seasons but they are pretty close to where they were three years ago when they should have hired Pochettino.
We all know how good of a coach he is and Sir Alex Ferguson saw it firsthand in 2013 when he coached against Pochettino’s Southampton. He has stayed in touch with him ever since and the legendary United coach will no doubt be asking for Poch to come in.
The only question should be this for Manchester United: do they hire Pochettino now or in the summer? It really is that simple.
Reports: Pochettino wants to become new Manchester United boss originally appeared on NBCSports.com
