Manchester United have sacked Carrick with one league win in ten, and Pochettino has agreed a deal to 2029
Carrick was told at Carrington on Thursday, six months after he signed a two-year contract. Pochettino is expected to take the USA’s Haiti games first and start at Anfield on 22 November.
Nov 13, 2026
Manchester United sacked Michael Carrick on Thursday morning. Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox told him at Carrington, a day after the pair had flown to Monaco to take their season review to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, according to ESPN. His replacement was already lined up. Sky Sports had reported a verbal agreement with Mauricio Pochettino while Carrick was still in the job.
The club statement was warm. “Michael is, and always will be, a Manchester United legend,” it said, before adding that the club “intends to appoint a permanent successor as quickly as possible”. That part should not take long.
From 12 wins in 17 to one in ten
It has gone wrong very quickly. Carrick came back in January after Ruben Amorim was sacked, won 12 of the last 17 games of 2025-26 and took United from sixth to third. That earned him a two-year contract in May.
Six months later United are 18th, with one Premier League win from ten games. They have won three of 15 in all competitions. There was a 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth in October that Carrick survived, and on Sunday a 4-4 draw with Aston Villa at Old Trafford that needed two stoppage-time goals, from Joshua Zirkzee and Patrick Dorgu. ESPN’s sources said 18th after ten games was “not acceptable” to the board.
Pochettino to 2029, after Haiti
By Thursday night the details were out. David Ornstein of The Athletic wrote that, if everything goes to plan, the 54-year-old will sign a contract at Old Trafford until the summer of 2029, and Sky Sports described it as a two-and-a-half-year deal. Both said an announcement could come as early as Friday.
United will pay the release clause in his U.S. Soccer contract, which ESPN put at $10 million (about £7m). He only signed that deal in August and it ran through the 2030 World Cup. He is staying on for the USA’s two CONCACAF Nations League quarter-finals against Haiti, on Saturday and Tuesday, and United are relaxed about that. ESPN expects him at Carrington by Wednesday at the latest.
His first game, then, would be Liverpool at Anfield on 22 November. Some introduction. He has managed Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea in the Premier League, and United came close to hiring him before, including in 2022 when they went for Erik ten Hag instead. He would be their eighth permanent manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.
I’m not convinced the man in the dugout was ever United’s main problem, not at a club about to hire its eighth since 2013. But they were never going to sit 18th and wait for the table to turn. Once Pochettino said yes, the international break gave them the timing.