Back in 2022, after the ill-fated Ralf Rangnick stint, Manchester United’s pursuit of a new full-time manager had become something of a two horse race.
There was Erik ten Hag, fresh from another outstanding Champions League campaign at Ajax. In the other stable, meanwhile, was one Mauricio Pochettino.
And, at the time, Manchester United legend Gary Neville did not need much convincing about the suitability of one of those two candidates.
Pochettino, he told Sky Sports following Rangnick’s departure, possessed both the Premier League experience and the footballing philosophy that made him tailor-made for life in the Old Trafford hotseat.
Two years on, however, while Erik ten Hag continues to hold down the post, Pochettino’s career has gone in a very different – and very unexpected – direction.
Manchester United chose Erik ten Hag over Mauricio Pochettino
“I do think you can have a big influence on a team as an international coach, and I do think he could have a massive influence on the culture of the group, the way in which they play…” Neville tells the It’s Called Soccer! podcast when discussing Pochettino’s shock appointment as head coach of the American national team.
“The ideas those American players are going to get… For most of them, he is going to be the best coach they have ever worked with. A lot of them won’t have worked with a coach anywhere near as good as this guy.
“He is one of the best in Europe!”
Pochettino was a coach with the world at his feet when leaving Tottenham Hotspur back in 2019.
He was, after all, the man who turned the perennial bridesmaid’s into Champions League finalists and Premier League challengers, even if their turn to catch the bouquet and walk down the aisle would never arrive.
Post-Spurs, Pochettino struggled to put his stamp on a tricky Paris Saint-Germain team – like Unai Emery before him – before leaving Chelsea in highly contentious circumstances despite a very creditable sixth-place finish in 2023/24.
“He does have a point to prove,” adds Neville, a paid-up member of the Pochettino fanclub ever since his early days at Southampton. “I mean, honestly, I fell in love with this guy 10, 12 years ago,”
“I did the first Monday Night Football with a Southampton game, and I was like; ‘Who is Mauricio Pochettino?’ Within two weeks, I was like; ‘What the hell is this?’.
“The football they started playing was unbelievable. And then he went to Tottenham. And I used to say, if you got a Jurgen Klopp game or a Mauricio Pochettino game for three or four years in the Premier League, you were getting a good game.
Former Chelsea boss to oversee 2026 World Cup campaign
“They play the way I thought the game should be played. Really high tempo, getting it forward, thrilling football.”
By Neville’s own admission, he would still have welcomed the Argentine to Old Trafford with open arms had Ineos opted to twist this summer rather than stick with Ten Hag.
Pochettino was linked again only a few months ago.
The FA Cup and EFL Cup winner is still yet to convince everyone that he is the right matter to take United back to the summit – The Guardian reports that there are still concerns over his suitability behind the scenes at the Red Devils – but successive high-scoring wins over Southampton and Barnsley has at least eased the pressure a little.
“I wanted (Pochettino) to the be the manager of Manchester United,” Neville admits. “When it was Ten Hag or Pochettino, I went on record and said; ‘Man United should hire Pochettino’.
“He was actually touted for the job in the summer when Erik ten Hag was under pressure. Again, I would have loved him to coach the club I support.
“I could not think any higher of him.”
Pochettino will take charge of the USA for the first time during the October international break.
A contract running into 2026 will see the former Paris Saint-Germain defender oversee their World Cup campaign on home soil.
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