Mauricio Pochettino Manchester United fans can finally stop refreshing their timelines. Manchester United confirmed on Friday that the Argentine has agreed to become the club’s new men’s head coach from 18 November, ending a whirlwind week that began with Michael Carrick’s sacking on Thursday.
The announcement, published on the club’s official website on Friday afternoon, puts a formal seal on a deal that had been reported as agreed in principle since Thursday. United said they had reached an agreement with the U.S. Soccer Federation for Pochettino and his staff to be released once their responsibilities with the United States men’s national team are over.
“Mauricio Pochettino has agreed to become the Manchester United men’s head coach from 18 November,” the club said in its statement. “The club has reached an agreement with the U.S. Soccer Federation for Mauricio and his staff to be released after the conclusion of their responsibilities with the U.S. Men’s National Team.”
The 54-year-old has signed a two-and-a-half-year deal at Old Trafford, running until June 2029. He arrives with United in the Premier League relegation zone after a disastrous start to the 2026/27 season, and with a first game that could hardly be tougher: a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool on Sunday, 22 November.
Mauricio Pochettino Manchester United deal: the cost, the staff and the timeline
United will not get their new boss on the training ground straight away. Pochettino will first see out his final two games in charge of the United States, a double-header against Haiti, with his last match as USMNT boss on 18 November before he flies to Manchester to start work the following day.
That leaves him just three days to prepare for the Liverpool trip, and a daunting opening run: three away games in his first four matches, with trips to Liverpool, Sporting and Newcastle. His first home fixture will be against Brentford in the Premier League on 28 November.
The price of the appointment is also coming into focus. talkSPORT understands it has cost United $12million (£9m) to hire Pochettino and his USMNT staff, while The Times reported the compensation figure for the Argentine himself at £7.5m. Either way, it is a significant outlay for a club that has already paid for one managerial change this season, and it underlines how far the hierarchy were willing to go to land their first-choice candidate.
Pochettino beat former Newcastle boss Eddie Howe to the job, according to talkSPORT, in a move spearheaded by the Glazers. Avram Glazer had already signed off the appointment earlier in the week, before the formal contact with U.S. Soccer was made.
What United said about their new head coach
United’s statement praised the qualities that made Pochettino their pick. The club described him as “renowned for his high-intensity, attacking style of football, his dedication to building strong, cohesive teams and his outstanding record of developing individual players.”
The statement also traced his route back to the Premier League, noting that he began his coaching career with Espanyol in 2009 before joining Southampton and achieving a club-record Premier League points tally in 2014. Spells at Tottenham and Chelsea followed, before he took the United States job in 2024 and led the Americans to the last 16 of the 2026 World Cup on home soil.
Former United assistant coach Rene Meulensteen, speaking on talkSPORT on Friday morning, laid out the size of the task. “First and foremost he has to sort the dressing room out and make sure there’s unity again which I don’t think is the case at the moment,” he said.
Carrick, sacked on Thursday, managed just one league win all season, fewer than any other Premier League club. Pochettino becomes the eighth permanent manager since Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013, and he returns to a Premier League touchline for the first time since May 2024.
For United, the wait is over. For Pochettino, the hardest part starts now: two games with the USA, then a flight to Manchester, then Anfield. There is no gentle introduction, and after the week the club has just had, nobody at Old Trafford will be expecting one.
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Photos: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0, Bryan Berlin / WikiPortraits) — collage by SportsBuddy
