Lunch date fuelled coach’s United appetite
⮞poc⮞ettino’s interest in Old Trafford job was clear when he met Ferguson for ‘secret’ talks in 2016
It is one of those delicious quirks of fate that Mauricio Pochettino will be in Manchester today. Whether he is in the city more permanently come next season, or possibly sooner, remains to be seen, but there are strong indications that Pochettino is extremely keen to finally become the manager of Manchester United.
Tomorrow’s fixture takes him to the Etihad Stadium, where Paris St-germain will face Manchester City in what is regarded as a play-off to finish top of their Champions League group. It is a big game and the PSG hierarchy will be irritated by the United talk.
Pochettino’s time at PSG has been chequered. He has achieved the incongruous feat of failing to win the French league and yet knocking out Barcelona and Bayern Munich and almost taking the club to a Champions League final, losing to City in the semis.
At the same time, Pochettino has faced fierce criticism over his tactics, whether he has developed a style of play or integrated at PSG, and whether he can control the egos within the dressing room, starting with what he has termed the “three kings” of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
The murmurings from those around him are that he has been less than enamoured by how little control he has, which has hampered implementing the football he wants. One example is the signing of Gianluigi Donnarumma, which has given him a selection headache after he endorsed Keylor Navas as his No1 goalkeeper by urging him to sign a new contract.
The fact that Pochettino still lives in a hotel more than 10 months after arriving in Paris has not banished the impression that he is only passing through, even if PSG triggered the one-year extension in his contract last summer amid interest from his former club, Tottenham Hotspur.
It means Pochettino is contracted to PSG until June 2023 and they will ensure he leaves on their terms, even if there is little sense that he will see out his deal. Failing in (or, indeed, winning) the Champions League this season would offer both parties a natural break, although waiting until then could be uncomfortable.
Pochettino is also aware that PSG did eventually allow Carlo Ancelotti to leave, while under contract, to become Real Madrid coach in 2013 after initially declaring it was “impossible”.
It may even suit all parties if Pochettino goes. If he is unhappy there is little point trying to keep him, especially as the readily available Zinedine Zidane seems less averse to taking over at PSG than he once did, given his connection with Marseille. What is clear is that Pochettino, when he does leave PSG, wants to return to the Premier League. His wife, Karina, lives in the family home in London while one of his two sons, Maurizio, plays for Watford and the other, Sebastiano, is part of his father’s coaching team.
The possibility of Pochettino ending up at United has been a point of debate since that famous lunch he shared with Sir Alex Ferguson five years ago at Scott’s, the Mayfair restaurant. The pair talked over a £114 bottle of Brunello di Montalcino red wine and it appeared he was being anointed as a future United manager. In the short term, the revelation about that lunch led to
five-year contracts being signed at Tottenham by Pochettino and his staff and his job title being changed from head coach to manager.
The importance of the meeting was played down (obviously), but while it was certainly beneficial to Pochettino, it was something
Ferguson also felt worthwhile. He was intrigued by the work the dynamic young coach was doing at Spurs and would have been aware of the inferences drawn from meeting him.
In the event, Pochettino did not succeed Louis van Gaal and, while he was certainly far more prominent in United’s thinking when Jose Mourinho was sacked, he did not get that job either, partly, it appeared, because the compensation was too high and the timing not quite right. Neither did United act when he was out of work between being sacked by Spurs in November 2019 and taking over at PSG just over a year later. It should also be noted that while Ferguson’s influence is important, he is not the king-maker at Old Trafford, as he was when David Moyes succeeded him in 2013.
But what now? Certainly, Pochettino regards United as his kind of project and they may be a better fit than PSG. In Paris, success is, to a degree, guaranteed, so it is only then how you win that matters – unless you bring home the Champions League. There is little credit for the coach.
If he is enamoured with United then it would hardly be surprising. After all, there are three guarantees with the job at Old Trafford: first, there will be significant resources; second, he will be given sufficient time; and third, most crucially of all for a coach who will back his own abilities, it would be remarkable to be the one who finally brings success back following the fallow post-ferguson years.
United have to win trophies but nobody expects dominance in this era. Pochettino will feel that United’s squad could be swiftly revived, and their core of young stars influenced by a man who is more comfortable working with youth and developing talent. Dare it be said, but he also fits the notion of that famed “cultural reboot”.
Should United pursue Pochettino, they should also bear in mind what Thomas Tuchel has done at Chelsea, having fallen short at PSG. United may have their reservations about Pochettino but, surely, he has to be prominent in their thoughts at the third time of asking.