Pochettino to Man Utd: Carrick Sack Decision Due in Monaco

Manchester United are finalising a deal to appoint Mauricio Pochettino as their next head coach, with Michael Carrick expected to be sacked before the club's next match. That is the position on Wednesday afternoon, according to The Athletic's David Ornstein, whose reporting first revealed on Monday night that United's hierarchy had decided to make a change. Yet in one of the strangest episodes of the season, Carrick remains in his job, took first-team training on Tuesday, and was back at Carrington again on Wednesday morning to lead another session. The final decision now rests with a meeting in Monaco.

For supporters in Pakistan, where United's following is enormous, this is the biggest club story of the international break — and it is moving fast. Personal terms with Pochettino were discussed on Tuesday. No contact has yet been made with U.S. Soccer, where Pochettino is under contract until the 2030 World Cup. And the man who would replace Carrick is currently preparing the United States for a Nations League quarter-final against Haiti, with a press conference scheduled for Friday. This is a takeover being negotiated in public, in real time, and with the clock ticking towards a trip to Anfield on November 22.

The Monaco meeting: who decides Carrick's fate

The decision will be made in Monaco rather than Manchester. Chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox have flown out to meet co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who has a home in the principality and whose company INEOS has offices there. According to BBC Sport, Berrada and Wilcox are expected to recommend to Ratcliffe and the Glazer family that Carrick be dismissed and a new manager appointed. Ratcliffe gets the final say.

The timing explains the surreal scenes at Carrington. The Monaco meeting was already planned before Monday night's reports broke, which is why Carrick was allowed to take training on Tuesday with a depleted group — most of the senior squad are away on international duty — and again on Wednesday morning, largely with academy players. BBC Sport report that it will be at least another day before there is concrete clarity, and a final decision may not come until Thursday. Carrick staying has not yet been formally ruled out, but every briefing points the same way: the expectation inside the club is that he goes.

It is a brutal comedown for a manager who, only a few months ago, looked like one of the stories of English football. Carrick, 45, was given the job permanently after an impressive interim spell in which he led United to Champions League qualification last season. Asked on Sunday, after the 4-4 draw with Aston Villa, whether he could step away, he told Sky Sports: "It's not going to happen, no." Twenty-four hours later, the reports said otherwise — and by Wednesday, United were discussing personal terms with his replacement.

Why United have moved: 18th, eight points, one win in ten

The numbers behind the decision are stark. United head into the international break 18th in the Premier League, a point from safety, with eight points from ten games and only one league win in ten — one win in 11 in all competitions. Sunday's 4-4 draw at home to Aston Villa summed up the season: twice two goals down, twice fighting back through Joshua Zirkzee and Patrick Dorgu in stoppage time, and still no win. The fightback bought Carrick 48 hours. It did not buy him the season.

Manchester United 2026-27 (Premier League)	Figure
League position	18th
Points from 10 games	8
League wins	1
Last result	4-4 vs Aston Villa (Nov 8)
Next fixture	Liverpool (a), Nov 22

The Villa game was the breaking point in a run that had already included heavy defeats and a squad that looked short of belief. Carrick's side had shown fight — the two comebacks on Sunday were real — but fight without results is not enough at a club that measures itself in trophies. The hierarchy's review, led by Wilcox with Berrada, concluded that the trajectory would not change. The decision, in the words of those close to the process, is about the direction of travel, not one result.

There is also the calendar. United's next game is the trip to Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, November 22 — the hardest fixture in the English calendar for a team in United's state. The club's thinking is clear: if a change is coming, make it during the international break, give the new manager ten days with the players who stayed behind, and let him walk into Anfield with a plan rather than a crisis.

The Pochettino deal: terms, buyout and what is still missing

According to The Athletic, United spent Tuesday discussing personal terms with Pochettino's representatives, and no issues are anticipated on that front. The complication is his contract. Pochettino, 54, signed a four-year extension with U.S. Soccer in August that runs to the 2030 World Cup, and The Athletic reported a release clause in the region of $10 million — around £7.4 million — with further compensation required if he brings his coaching staff with him. United have not yet contacted U.S. Soccer, and have not triggered the clause.

That sequence matters. United are, in effect, agreeing everything with the manager before speaking to his employer. It is the same pattern the club followed in previous managerial searches, and it tells you how confident they are that the deal will be done. Sports Mole reports that Pochettino's first match in charge is set to be the Liverpool game — which means the announcement, if it comes on Thursday, would leave him barely a week to prepare for Anfield.

Pochettino has not commented on the reports. He was at the U.S. training centre in Fayetteville, Georgia, on Tuesday and greeted the media, but did not address the United speculation. He is due to face the press again on Friday, ahead of the first leg of the Concacaf Nations League quarter-final against Haiti in Miami on Saturday, November 14, with the second leg in Cincinnati on November 17. By then, the world may know whether he is still the United States coach — or the next Manchester United manager.

What Pochettino would bring to Old Trafford

Pochettino is the most obvious candidate on the market, and the one United have circled before. He managed Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea in the Premier League, and has always had a desire to manage United, according to Sports Mole. At Tottenham he built the best team of the modern era at the club, reaching the 2019 Champions League final, and at Paris Saint-Germain he won Ligue 1. At Chelsea he finished sixth in 2023-24 with a young squad that improved steadily through the season.

His football fits the brief United's hierarchy have described: a high press, intensity without the ball, and a willingness to trust young players. That last point matters at Old Trafford, where the academy remains the club's pride and where the current squad is short of the experience to carry a relegation fight on its own. Pochettino's record with young players — Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Son Heung-min at Spurs, Cole Palmer at Chelsea — is the strongest part of his case.

There are questions too. He has never won a league title in England, his spell at PSG ended after 18 months, and his time with the United States has been mixed, with the 2026 World Cup on home soil ending without the deep run the hosts hoped for. But for a club 18th in the table, the priority is not a title challenge. It is survival, structure and a manager who can rebuild a broken dressing room. Pochettino, who has rebuilt two Premier League clubs before, is the safe pair of hands with the biggest upside.

Who else is in the frame — and who is not

The Standard reports that former Newcastle boss Eddie Howe is another prominent name admired at Old Trafford, and The Sun has previously linked him with the job. But the reporting is consistent that Pochettino is the clear favourite, and that the club have moved past the shortlist stage into active negotiation. Antonio Conte and Julian Nagelsmann are reportedly not being pursued, according to the Standard's live coverage — a sign that United want a manager who fits their structure rather than a big name who would demand to run it.

That is a telling detail. The post-Ferguson era at United has been defined by managers who clashed with the structure above them. The appointment of Wilcox as director of football and Berrada as chief executive was supposed to end that cycle, with the manager working inside a system rather than above it. Pochettino, who worked within a sporting-director model at Spurs and has spoken openly about wanting a collaborative structure, fits that model better than the alternatives.

SAFF Championship: decider day in Dhaka as Pakistan wait

While United's future is decided in Monaco, Pakistan's footballers are waiting on results in Dhaka. At the time of writing, India are playing Maldives in the final Group B match of the SAFF Championship, with the score 0-0 after 22 minutes. A draw or a win for India would see them top the group; Maldives need a win by three goals or more to stay alive. The second match of the day, hosts Bangladesh against Sri Lanka in Group A, kicks off at 7:00pm PKT and decides who Pakistan face in the semi-final on Saturday, November 14, at 7:30pm PKT.

Pakistan finished second in Group B with three points and a goal difference of plus two, after the 3-0 win over Maldives on Sunday rescued a campaign that had started with a 3-2 defeat to India. Whoever tops Group A — Bangladesh if they avoid defeat tonight, Sri Lanka if they win — will be Pakistan's opponents in the second semi-final. The first semi-final, between the Group B winners and the Group A runners-up, is at 2:00pm PKT on Saturday. The full picture from Dhaka will be in tonight's post.

What happens next

When	What
Today (Wed, Nov 11)	Monaco meeting: Berrada and Wilcox meet Ratcliffe; Carrick's future decided in principle
Thu, Nov 12	Final decision expected; Carrick's sacking could be confirmed
Fri, Nov 13	Pochettino due to face media ahead of USMNT's Haiti tie
Sat, Nov 14	SAFF semi-finals in Dhaka; USA vs Haiti, Nations League QF first leg, Miami
Sun, Nov 22	Liverpool vs Manchester United at Anfield — Pochettino's expected first game in charge

The next 24 hours will decide it. If the Monaco meeting goes as expected, Carrick will be sacked on Thursday and Pochettino's appointment will follow within days, with the buyout paid and U.S. Soccer informed. If Ratcliffe hesitates, Carrick will take training again on Thursday and the limbo will stretch towards the Liverpool game — a scenario nobody at the club wants. Either way, the manager who led United into the Champions League last season is one meeting away from the end, and the man who has wanted the Old Trafford job for a decade is one phone call away from getting it.

For Pakistani United fans, the wait is familiar: the club has changed managers five times since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, and each time the promise has been the same — this time it will be different. Pochettino's record says he can rebuild a team. Whether he can rebuild this one, starting at Anfield, is the question that will define the rest of United's season.

Images: Mauricio Pochettino with the United States in 2026, by Bryan Berlin (CC BY-SA 4.0); Old Trafford, by Lewis Clarke (CC BY-SA 2.0); Anfield, by Mike Penning (CC BY-SA 2.0) — all via Wikimedia Commons, used for illustration and not photographs of the events described. Sources: The Athletic via Sports Mole, Sportskeeda and The Standard; BBC Sport via The Standard; U.S. Soccer; Sportradar (SAFF live score at time of writing).