Former Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola will be the United States’ top target to replace Mauricio Pochettino if and when their manager joins Manchester United, according to a report.
It is looking more and more likely that the former Tottenham and Chelsea boss will take over from Michael Carrick at Old Trafford in the coming days.
Pochettino is currently with his United States Men’s National Team players ahead of their fixtures against Haiti in the CONCACAF Nations League this fortnight, but is expected to join up with United after those games.
That will leave the United States needing a new boss and, according to The Athletic, they will set their sights on Guardiola.
The Spaniard is renowned as one of the best managers around, having won the Champions League and six Premier League titles while with City.
He also has historic success with Bayern Munich and Barcelona, and has previously shown interest in potentially moving into international football.
The United States are reportedly set to make Pep Guardiola (pictured) their top target to replace Mauricio Pochettino as manager
Pochettino (right) is set to leave his role at the USMNT to take over at Manchester United
As recently as the summer, Guardiola came so close to being appointed Italy manager that he was ‘writing down line-ups’ before ultimately deciding not to take the role on.
He was touted to take over an under-performing Italian national team, but the move fell through, and Italian Football Federation technical director and defensive legend Paolo Maldini resigned after a move to appoint Andrea Pirlo also collapsed due to his commercial links with a Russian betting company.
Maldini opened up on how close Guardiola came to taking over the team, revealing that the Spaniard was seemingly on board for a pretty long time.
‘(Guardiola) is the coach who best embodies technical, attacking football,’ Maldini told Corriere della Sera. ‘He had expressed the idea of wanting to coach a national team to some friends.
‘We went to meet him in Barcelona, we had lunch together, we talked for an entire day.
‘He was very tempted. He came very close to accepting. He even started writing line-ups down on sheets of paper.’
It is reported that Guardiola has spoken to officials at the US national side in the past and is intrigued by working in America. He lived in New York briefly after leaving Barcelona in 2012.
He is said to have been approached in 2024 before Pochettino was appointed, and wished the Argentine well upon his appointment.
Pochettino is currently away with the States but is likely to join United in the coming days
He said: ‘I wish him and the USA – I have friends there – the best of luck. I know he’s a top-class manager.’
He has also been previously quoted as saying: ‘The USA is fascinating to try and build a project for many years and being able to get the national team to the next step. The potential with the USA is there for the amount of people and sports and so on.’
United moved closer to putting Pochettino in charge at Old Trafford after reaching a verbal agreement with the US national team boss on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the club’s chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox were in Monaco where minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe was expected to ratify their decision to sack Carrick with the blessing of co-chairmen Joel and Avram Glazer.
Carrick’s departure could be confirmed on Thursday, but official confirmation of Pochettino’s appointment may take a little longer with more talks planned overnight on Wednesday.
