Hiring Ralf Rangnick until the end of the season as caretaker manager, Manchester United decided to take their time to find the right successor for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Names such as Erik Ten Hag, Zinédine Zidane and Mauricio Pochettino did the rounds immediately after the Norwegian’s dismissal, but convincing them to join midway through the season would have been a tough ask.
Thus, Rangnick was appointed to bridge the gap, but Le Parisien in France are reporting that the latter on the list, the Argentine, remains in Manchester United’s books.
In fact, the newspaper have a headline in their Wednesday edition claiming the Red Devils and Pochettino are still in touch, and it’s made clear that there has been ‘regular contact since November’.
The former Tottenham manager has ‘a lot of partisans within the English club to take over next season’, and Manchester United ‘still dream’ of appointing him.
However, it’s made clear he isn’t the only one, with Erik Ten Hag also on the club’s list, while ‘Rangnick will not extend his interim’ following a ‘failed relaunch plan, disappointing results and a regrettable spectacle on display’.
Le Parisien explain that it’s the German who favours Ten Hag as his successor, but it’s Manchester United as a club who want Pochettino, as a few ‘legends in the middle give their opinion’, with the Argentine picking up the votes.
As for the manager himself, he ‘sees himself returning’ to the Premier League, a competition ‘he appreciates a lot’, and the English life he prefers.
It’s then revealed that ‘secretly and discreetly’, Pochettino ‘maintains contacts’ with Manchester United ‘in case he manages to free himself from his Paris Saint-Germain contract next summer’.
The Ligue 1 side, down their end, are ‘also activating themselves’ just in case, with the favourite remaining Zidane, described as a ‘complex affair’.
Regarding what happens in the future, the club ‘will soon know’ what to expect from Pochettino, ‘if he wins his match against Ten Hag’ within the walls of Old Trafford and Carrington.
