Everything Mauricio Pochettino has said about the Man Utd job amid renewed interest

Mauricio Pochettino is a candidate to become the next manager of Manchester United as the club edge closer to sacking Michael Carrick.

BBC Sport understands Pochettino is open to succeeding Carrick, who is set to be relieved of his duties following a torrid start to the season.

It is not the first time Pochettino has been linked with the Old Trafford post, with the United States boss having been in the running on several previous occasions.

As the United hierarchy consider his merits once again, FootballTransfers takes a look at everything Pochettino has said about the United job in the past.

As Tottenham Hotspur boss, Pochettino said he wanted to follow in the footsteps of United icon Sir Alex Ferguson by building a team around British talent.

United dominated English football under Ferguson, winning a staggering 38 trophies during his 26-year reign as manager between 1986 and 2013.

The Scot leaned heavily on United’s youth system in that time, famously blooding in the ‘Class of 92’ which included David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.

And the trio - alongside Gary and Phil Neville and Nicky Butt - played major roles as United won 13 Premier League titles under Ferguson’s stewardship.

One man who was inspired by that vision was Pochettino, who sought to emulate Ferguson by constructing an exciting Spurs side based around British stars.

Tottenham came close to winning the Premier League and Champions League under Pochettino, who nurtured the likes of Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Kyle Walker, Eric Dier and Danny Rose.

In quotes carried by FourFourTwo, Pochettino said in April 2017: “There is big pressure to win when you are a big club.

“But for me the best example in football in many years was Manchester United with Sir Alex Ferguson - and what he created with young talent from the academy or from England. It created the core of a team that won everything. That is a good example for me.”

As soon as Ferguson stood down as United boss in May 2013, the club immediately began to falter under the direction of a number of different managers.

Over the next seven years United would hire David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - each of them failing to last longer than three years at the helm.

Pochettino was regularly linked with the United post during this time, given his previous comments about wanting to emulate Ferguson at Tottenham.

Ferguson was also known to be an admirer of Pochettino’s work at Spurs, with the pair having lunch together in Mayfair, London in May 2016.

And in an interview with Sky Sports in May 2020, six months after he left Spurs, Pochettino was asked about his links to United, as well as Ferguson’s appreciation of his methods.

He said: “They are two different things. The rumours are there but we don't listen too much. We try to be natural when living in this business.

“Of course when some coach is doing well, you take the headlines and people start to link you with different jobs. That is not interesting, it's not important.

“The other thing is talking about a person like Sir Alex Ferguson, who I always admired from a distance. When you get to know him you admire him more and realise why he was very successfully. Not only in winning trophies but also in the way he managed people.

“That is the key point for him. What I want to say, he is a person who knows the human side is so important. For his strategy, to create an organisation so capable of winning trophies and being so successful.”

After spending a period out of work following his exit from Tottenham, Pochettino returned to management with Paris Saint-Germain in January 2021.

However, the 54-year-old was sacked in July 2022 after failing to lead a star-studded PSG side featuring Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar to Champions League glory.

Pochettino was unemployed for another year before he was appointed Chelsea manager in July 2023, spending one season at Stamford Bridge before leaving in May of the following year.

Meanwhile, United continued to burn through a number of managers - both interim and permanent - during the same period.

After United legend Solskjaer departed in November 2021, Carrick and Ralf Rangnick had spells as interim head coach before Erik ten Hag was appointed on a permanent deal in May 2022.

Ten Hag led United to two trophies in two seasons - the Carabao Cup in 2023 and the FA Cup in 2024 - before he was dismissed by club officials in October of the latter year.

And Pochettino revealed earlier this year that United showed regular “interest” in appointing him during this period.

Speaking to FourFourTwo in May 2026, he said: “United have always shown interest. But the ideal scenario to manage there has never quite materialised.

“In any case, that lunch with Sir Alex had absolutely nothing to do with it. In his final season as a manager, we played a great game against United with Southampton.

“In the press conference after, he said we’d been the most complete opponent that United had faced.”

And opening up about his lunch with Ferguson, Pochettino added: “Through the secretary of the League Managers Association, he asked for my phone number so that we could have lunch.

“It was a meeting in London between colleagues – between a genius and an apprentice.

“My English wasn’t great, but Jesus Perez (Pochettino’s assistant manager) helped. When we asked for the bill, I wanted to take it, and so did he (Ferguson).

“We started arguing over who’d pay! He said: 'Stop, Mauricio, I’m going to ask you a question. If you answer correctly, you pay. If not, I’ll pay'. I had no idea what he was going to ask.

“He said: 'Name an Argentine player who scored in the 1930 World Cup final'. I replied: '(Guillermo) 'Stabile'. He couldn’t believe it. The name came to me out of nowhere! In the end, I paid the bill.”

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