The United States have set Pep Guardiola as their priority target if Mauricio Pochettino leaves for Manchester United. The move is not official yet, but the chain reaction is already there, with United said to have reached a verbal agreement with Pochettino on Wednesday. Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox were in Monaco while Sir Jim Ratcliffe was expected to ratify the decision.

The USA's succession plan

A Bola reported that the USA are ready to go after Guardiola if Pochettino heads to Trafford. That lines up with the long-running interest around him, and with Guardiola's own view of international management. He told A Bola that “The United States are fascinating to try to build a project over many years and manage to take the national team to the next level.”

Guardiola has also been linked with Italy before. Paolo Maldini told dailymail.com that Guardiola “came very close to accepting the job” and had even started writing line-ups down on paper. Giovanni Malagò added that if Guardiola had taken any project, “it would have been with us.”

Why this keeps coming back

The appeal is obvious enough. Guardiola has spent the last few years shaping elite club teams, and the national-team route keeps circling back because he has never shut the door on it. In A Bola's account, the federation contacted Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp during the 2024 recruitment process before appointing Pochettino.

There is also the scale of the job itself. Guardiola said the potential in the United States is there because of the number of people, because of sports and everything else. The timing now depends on what happens with Pochettino, but the USA have clearly kept Guardiola in mind for a while.

United's own position adds to the pressure around any decision. They sit 18th in the Premier League, have a league form line of DLLDD and a goal difference of -5. If Pochettino does move on, the U.S. federation will not be starting from scratch, they will be returning to a name they have already had on the board.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →