Carrick expected to lose job as Manchester United open talks with Pochettino

Manchester United have opened talks with USA head coach Mauricio Pochettino about replacing Michael Carrick, and Carrick is expected to lose his job this week, BBC Sport reports.

Carrick's future will be decided at a meeting in Monaco on Wednesday. Chief executive Omar Berrada, director of football Jason Wilcox and co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe will all attend. Berrada and Wilcox have already flown to Monaco, and their expected recommendation is that Carrick should go.

The pressure comes from the table. United are 18th in the Premier League, inside the relegation zone, the bottom three places that send the lowest clubs down at the end of the season. They have won one of their first 10 league games, and none since August. It is their lowest position at this stage of a top-flight season since 1986-87, when they were 20th.

Pochettino is the name at the centre of the search. He is a former Tottenham and Chelsea boss, and discussions are under way for him to return to the Premier League. He renewed his contract with the USA in August. The BBC also reports that he has a $10m (£7.5m) release clause, a set fee that would let another club sign him without negotiating with his current employer.

This is not the first time United have looked his way. They spoke to him about their managerial position when Jose Mourinho was sacked in 2018, again in 2022 before appointing Erik ten Hag, and once more when Ten Hag was sacked in 2024.

Pochettino also has national team duties to think about. The USA have a two-legged Concacaf Nations League quarter-final against Haiti over the next week. Concacaf is the governing body for football across North and Central America and the Caribbean, and the Nations League is a competition between national teams. Two-legged means one match at each side's home ground, with the total score across both games deciding who goes through.