Pochettino agrees United deal as Carrick exit nears

Manchester United have reached a verbal agreement in principle with Mauricio Pochettino to become their next head coach, according to Sky Sports, and BBC Sport reports that the Argentine is ready to accept the job. Michael Carrick took training on Wednesday and remains officially in charge. The club has not confirmed a change.

That sequence is the story. United have not dismissed Carrick; they have agreed with the man they want to replace him. Until the club makes a statement the appointment is a report rather than a fact, and the two broadcasters describe the same move with different numbers attached to it.

What has been agreed

Sky reported a verbal agreement in principle, with the details still open: the buyout to be settled with US Soccer and the terms of Pochettino's backroom staff. BBC Sport put the release cost at 10m dollars, around 7.5m pounds, on a contract signed only in August. Sky put the buyout at 7m pounds. Neither federation nor club has confirmed a figure, so the difference between the two is not something either report explains.

The plan being reported keeps Pochettino with the USA for their two Concacaf Nations League quarter-final games against Haiti during this international break. Sky reported that United are comfortable with that and that talks with US Soccer would accelerate over the next 24 hours. US Soccer has a succession plan in place, according to BBC Sport, which is why an approach is expected rather than resisted.

Ten games, one win

The table explains the urgency better than any brief. United are 18th with eight points: one win, five draws, four defeats, 14 goals scored and 19 conceded. BBC Sport noted it is the club's lowest position at this stage of a top-flight season since 1986-87, when they were 20th.

The draws column is the odd one. Five is the joint highest in the division, level with Brentford and Leeds United, and it is why a team with one win is not already cut adrift. Only Crystal Palace, with 24, and Ipswich Town, with 20, have conceded more than United's 19. The result is a side that is rarely beaten heavily and rarely wins, which is exactly what eight points from ten games looks like.

The meeting in Monaco

Carrick's future was to be decided at a meeting in Monaco on Wednesday attended by chief executive Omar Berrada, director of football Jason Wilcox and co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, according to BBC Sport. Sky reported the same meeting and said the recommendation is for the head coach to go. Carrick, 45, had been given a stay of execution after the 3-0 home defeat to Bournemouth last month, Sky reported.

The fixture list that waits

United's players return by next Thursday before a trip to Anfield on Sunday 22 November, then Sporting away in the Champions League on 25 November, Brentford at home on 28 November and Newcastle away on 2 December. A new coach would get one league match before a run of three in eleven days. That is not a settling-in period, it is a diagnosis.

For Pochettino the appeal is obvious. He has managed in the Premier League at Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea, reached a Champions League final with Spurs and took the USA to the last 16 of the 2026 World Cup. United have approached him three times before, in 2018, 2022 and 2024, and hired somebody else on each occasion.

What is still unconfirmed

• Sky Sports: verbal agreement in principle, a 7m pounds buyout, staff terms still being negotiated.
• BBC Sport: Pochettino is ready to accept; the release clause is 10m dollars; US Soccer expects an official approach.
• BBC Sport: Carrick's future was to be settled in Monaco on Wednesday, with no statement from the club.
• Sky Sports: Pochettino is likely to stay with the USA for the two games against Haiti.

None of that is a sacking and none of it is an appointment. Two of the largest broadcasters in England have the same story with different fee figures, and neither club has signed anything that has been made public.

What the numbers say about the job

Any incoming coach inherits a side that has won once in ten, scores at a mid-table rate with 14 goals, eighth in the division, and concedes at a relegation rate with 19, 17th. The goal difference of minus five is 16th. The rate of 0.80 points per game would produce 30 points over a 38-match season, a figure nobody at Old Trafford wants to see in print.

The counter-argument, made by Paul Merson on Sky Sports this week, is that recruitment rather than coaching produced the worst start in the club's Premier League history. A squad that has spent heavily and still lacks a reliable scorer will make any coach look worse than he is. That argument is about to be tested: the next coach gets the same players, the same table and 28 matches to move it.

United's position is on the Premier League page, the full division is on the tables page, and the Champions League tie at Sporting sits under Champions League. Until the club speaks, the table is the only confirmed statement it has made.