Fabrizio Romano and David Ornstein revealed that Mauricio Pochettino, is set to succeed Michael Carrick as Manchester United manager..

Sky Sports' renowned Italian transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano and The Athletic's resident renowned English transfer journalist David Ornstein, both reported on Wednesday that current head coach of the United States national team, Mauricio Pochettino, is set to succeed Michael Carrick as Manchester United manager.

According to Ornstein, Manchester United’s management has been actively searching for a new manager since the team’s narrow 4-4 draw against Aston Villa in the league last weekend.

Mauricio Pochettino has reached a verbal agreement with the club to take charge, and the Red Devils are set to trigger a $10 million release clause in his contract.

Fabrizio Romano added that, although a verbal agreement is in place, the former Tottenham Hotspur manager cannot take the helm at Manchester United immediately. He remains focused on his duties with the United States national team, which he will continue to lead through the current international break.

Furthermore, Manchester United has yet to finalize arrangements regarding Pochettino’s coaching staff. Should the club decide to bring in his assistants as well, they would need to trigger additional release clauses for those individuals.

Meanwhile, as the formal procedures remain incomplete, Michael Carrick technically retains the title of Manchester United manager, though, in reality, his position is effectively defunct.

It is worth mentioning that this is actually not the first time that Manchester United has considered hiring Pochettino.

Back in 2016, the Red Devils attempted to recruit him while he was still at the helm of Tottenham Hotspur; however, the Argentine, who has since gone on to manage Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, had no intention of leaving the London club at that time. 

At the same time, this serves as a reminder of a recurring pattern at Manchester United: whenever things go awry, the club’s go-to "solution" is to circle back to a manager they had previously considered, hoping he might turn things around.

Back in 2002, former manager Louis van Gaal had openly expressed his willingness to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson once the latter retired. Manchester United, however, never followed through on that prospect, opting instead to appoint David Moyes as Ferguson’s successor.

It was only after Moyes was sacked that the club finally "got around" to the idea of appointing Van Gaal.

It is little wonder, then, that a colleague of Ornstein, speaking on The Athletic’s podcast, remarked that the Premier League giants have "failed to learn from their past mistakes."

Image source: Internet / The Athletic