POCH CAN FIX IT: Man Utd is a huge gamble for Pochettino after 10-year saga - but they are a match made in heaven

The flirtation has gone on for 10 years. And now, finally, the “stars are aligned” for Mauricio Pochettino and Manchester United.

Pochettino has never hidden his desire to get back into club management and, no matter what anyone says, United is a club you just don’t turn down.

It is a huge gamble on Pochettino’s part because of the state of Old Trafford now, the dysfunctional boardroom and a manager can only be as good as the tools he is given.

For United, it must be seen as a risk plucking a manager from international football, Pochettino has something to prove and question marks over whether he is as good as he was.

But if there is one man who can win over the fans, bring the charisma and personality needed to unify a club in turmoil and provide a footballing identity then it is Pochettino.

The former Tottenham and Chelsea boss fills any room with his charm and smile. The players will love him, he is a players’ man and the potential at Old Trafford will inspire Pochettino.

That is why Pochettino is a big risk - but one that Manchester United are right to take. This is a manager who first flirted with United back in 2016 when he was on a shortlist which also included Jose Mourinho who got the job.

United toyed with Pochettino again in 2022 but plumped for Erik ten Hag. His name was mentioned before they went for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Michael Carrick and even Ruben Amorim.

Why? Because English football is an itch that Pochettino has to scratch. He could have gone back to Tottenham but, as Pochettino said in September, the “stars were not aligned.” Not for Spurs or any club job, he said.

When a few of us sat down in a hotel room with Pochettino in September, the former Argentina World Cup star even insisted Tottenham is the one job he would take in the Championship if they had gone down.

He always says the right thing to charm the fans. Spurs fans still love him.

And when Tottenham called again last February, Pochettino had taken the United States job and was leading them to the World Cup. He had to say no and then surprised everyone by signing a new four-year deal to commit with the United States.

That just shows you how much contracts are worth in football. It had a buy-out clause and, despite Pochettino insisting he stayed because of “the people” and the loyalty they showed to him, United is a job which he could not refuse.

Pochettino also loves English football. And England. “For me, it is because we are very similar in the way we feel the passion of football,” said Pochettino in our chat in September.

“I think we are very similar. I love the countryside, I love the farms and here it is amazing. I think you respect all the things that I also grew up with in my country.

“In Argentina I am living in a town in Murphy and I grew up with a lot of Irish people and British people. Irish, English, Wales and Scotland, many people are in Argentina and if you are there you feel it. And all the clubs, no? Racing Club, River Plate, it is English language, no? It is a country that is very like Argentina.”

Pochettino gets the passion and has a brilliant CV. He worked wonders at Southampton. Led Tottenham to a Champions League final and built one of the best teams in the club’s history. Trophy or not.

Then at Chelsea, he lasted just a year at the height of the club’s internal politics and with a team which Gary Neville famously labelled the “billion pound bottle jobs.”

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But, actually, trace back the results in the second half of the season and you will see that Pochettino was on the right lines.

Pochettino shocked everyone by taking the US job. He had a really good World Cup and turned a lot of Americans into football fans. He has that charm about him.

Pochettino still plays a high intensity, high press and entertaining brand of football. Yes, the United squad has massive limitations. But players will run through brick walls for him and be motivated by him.

This is also his chance, at 54, to show and prove himself on the biggest stage again. This will be his biggest job yet.

He could have easily stayed in international football, enjoyed a relatively easy life and led the United States to the next World Cup. That was the plan.

And then United came calling. After a 10-year dalliance with arguably the biggest flirt in football, United and Pochettino are a match made in heaven.