Pochettino’s Manchester United interest is as natural as it is disruptive to the US

The former Tottenham manager is always going to be a subject of interest, but United’s job carries a rare power

As Mauricio Pochettino left the podium to close his final press conference of the last international window, he offered an ambiguous farewell.

“See you next …” Pochettino began as he headed to the tunnels of Allianz Field in Saint Paul, before cutting his sentence short. Then, a bit of a sing-song: “See you next, see you next.”

You don’t need an AI clanker’s autocomplete function to try closing the sentence. “See you next month” would have been synonymous with “see you next window”, after all. Still, the farewell felt poignant given questions about whether Pochettino was going to last a full four-year cycle as US men’s national team head coach.