Manchester United and Mauricio Pochettino have agreed a deal for him to become the club's next head coach.
Pochettino is expected to sign a two-and-half-year contract at Old Trafford, replacing Michael Carrick, who was sacked earlier on Thursday.Pochettino - who had a £7m release clause in his USA contract - will take charge of United after overseeing the USA's games against Haiti on Saturday and Wednesday.Man Utd live updatesThe damning stats that made Carrick reign untenableWhy have Man Utd had only two 'successful'
managers?The formal announcement of Pochettino's appointed is expected on Friday, with the Argentine set to be United's eighth permanent appointment since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.Pochettino's first game in charge will be the trip to Anfield to face Liverpool on November 22, live on Sky Sports.Carrick departed less than six months after signing a two-year contract having overseen the club's worst start to a
Premier League season, with United in the relegation zone after picking up one win in 10 matches.In a statement on Thursday morning, shortly after Carrick left the training ground, United said they reached "the extremely difficult conclusion that a change is necessary in order to achieve our ambitions".Carrick took training in Manchester on Wednesday as United reached a verbal agreement with Pochettino.Meanwhile,
club chiefs were at a Monaco summit with minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
That is where the decision to sack Carrick was ratified by Ratcliffe following the recommendation of chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox.
United's hierarchy, including Wilcox and Berrada, are understood to feel that the current squad is much better than results and performances have shown.Carrick's exit follows United's 4-4 draw against Aston Villa on Sunday, when they fell 2-0 down inside four minutes and then 4-2 down early in the second half before mounting a last-gasp comeback to draw.The rescue job followed a similar turnaround to beat Roma in the
Champions League last Tuesday but was not enough to convince the United hierarchy to continue with the former midfielder in charge.Jonny Evans and Jonathan Woodgate, who were part of the coaching set up under Carrick, have also left the club, along with Steve Holland, Travis Binnion and goalkeeping coach Craig Mawson.The only coach who remains is assistant first-team goalkeeping coach Connor King, who joined the club
two months ago.Carrick was initially appointed as United boss in January 2026 on a contract until the end of the season following Ruben Amorim's sacking earlier in that campaign.
He delivered a brilliant run of results, winning 12 of 17 matches to earn a third-place finish in the Premier League and a return to the Champions League.Carrick was nominated for Premier League Manager of the Season and, on May 22, signed a new contract running to 2028.
However, just three wins in 15 matches this term have cost him his job.Former Tottenham, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain boss Pochettino has been considered for the United job on three previous occasions, but will now finally take the Old Trafford hot seat.
Neville: United need bigger solution than sacking CarrickSky Sports' Gary Neville to NBC: "You can keep changing the manager and thinking that's going to be the answer. But this has been proven now over 12 years, that's not the answer."It's rinse and repeat.
Ruben Amorim, Erik ten Hag, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Carrick, Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal, David Moyes, Ralf Rangnick - some of them are world-class managers who have had success.
There are a lot of promising young managers there, ex-players who know the club as well."None of it has worked because if you've got a poor performance department, poor recruitment department, you've not got leadership that is strong right through the spine of the football club, you will fail." Carrick's Man Utd reign in numbersUnited won 12 out of 17 games last season under Carrick - a 70.1 per cent win rate, which
saw him comfortably sit with the best record of permanent Old Trafford managers.But he leaves with a record of 15 wins in 32 matches - a rate of just 46.9 per cent, which leaves him only ahead of Ruben Amorim, the man he replaced in the dugout last season, in the years since Ferguson's retirement.Carrick has overseen three wins in 15 matches this campaign (20 per cent).
They won eight out of 21 games before Amorim's sacking last year (38.1 per cent).His drop-off brings echoes of
