Pochettino announced as new Manchester United manager after Carrick sacking

Manchester United have appointed Mauricio Pochettino as their new manager, turning to the former United States head coach to rescue a season that has collapsed into a relegation fight.

Pochettino replaces Michael Carrick, who was sacked with United sitting 18th in the Premier League, inside the relegation zone, after the club's worst start to a league campaign in 40 years. United have won only one of their first 10 league matches, collecting eight points, and sit just one point above bottom side Crystal Palace. In all competitions they have won only three of 15 matches.

The appointment was agreed with the US Soccer Federation, which will release the 54-year-old and his staff once he has completed his immediate duties with the United States men's national team.

What happened

United confirmed the arrangement in a statement that made clear how the handover will work. "The club has reached an agreement with the US Soccer Federation for Mauricio and his staff to be released after the conclusion of their responsibilities with the US Men's National Team," the club said.

US Soccer said Pochettino will first lead the United States in upcoming matches against Haiti before joining United. British media reported that United will pay substantial compensation to secure his release; his contract with the US had been due to run until the 2030 World Cup.

He took charge of the United States in 2024 and led the co-hosts to the round of 16 at the 2026 World Cup. "The opportunity to represent the USA crest was one of the greatest honours of my career," Pochettino said.

Carrick's dismissal had come to look unavoidable. A return of one win and eight points from 10 league games is not a slump a club of United's resources can explain away, and supporters booed the team off after the recent defeat by Bournemouth, a sign that patience in the stands had run out along with the results.

The manager United are turning to

Pochettino becomes the eighth permanent manager United have appointed since Sir Alex Ferguson departed in May 2013 after more than 26 years in charge. That number tells its own story: the club has cycled through coaches of very different profiles since, and none has lasted long enough to restore what Ferguson built.

United's statement set out what they believe they are buying, praising "his high-intensity, attacking style of football, his dedication to building strong, cohesive teams and his outstanding record of developing individual players". It is a description that fits the reputation he built in English football, above all at Tottenham Hotspur, where between 2014 and 2019 he turned a young squad into title challengers, finishing as Premier League runners-up in 2017, and led the club to a Champions League final and a League Cup final.

His record elsewhere shows both silverware and near misses. He won the Ligue 1 title with Paris Saint-Germain, later took Chelsea to a League Cup runner-up finish in 2023-24, and also managed Southampton, where his pressing style first drew attention in the Premier League. Few available managers combine Premier League experience, a record of developing young players and a recent spell in international football.

What he inherits, though, is daunting. United's is an expensive squad that is short of confidence and, as results have shown, short of identity. Expensive squads can be harder to fix than cheap ones: expectations are fixed by the transfer fees, while the performances that follow rarely are. Pochettino's teams have generally needed time and trust to install their intensity, commodities that a club in the relegation zone in November does not obviously possess.

What happens next

Pochettino's first assignment could hardly be more demanding: a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool in the league on November 22. Few fixtures in English football expose a new manager's team more quickly, and fewer still offer a faster way to win over supporters who have spent the season booing. A competitive performance, even in defeat, would buy him a measure of goodwill; a heavy one would deepen the sense of crisis before his work has properly begun.

Before that comes the handover itself. His commitments with the United States, including the matches against Haiti, must be concluded before he and his staff arrive, which compresses his preparation for the run of fixtures that will decide whether United's season is a relegation battle or merely a historically bad start.

The longer question is the one United have been asking since 2013. Eight permanent managers in the years since Ferguson is not a record of impatience alone; it reflects a club that has repeatedly changed direction. Pochettino's appointment, secured at substantial cost from a national federation mid-contract, is the most emphatic statement yet that United believe the right coach can still change everything. His first task is simpler and more urgent than that: win matches, starting at Anfield, and get the club out of the bottom three.