Pochettino’s driven and competitive nature means he is an itch he will want to scratch when his appointment at United is confirmed. While Spurs have always seemed to be his first love, there is also no doubt that United holds a special place in his thoughts. Spanish football expert Guillem Balagué, who worked with Pochettino on his book Brave New World, says: “There is also a connection with the people at the club.” Omar Berrada is an amateur. When Manchester City drew up a shortlist to replace Pep Guardiola, some City fans, including Omar, argued for Pochettino to be on it. “There are many clues about his feelings for United in the book. He was at the stadium in 1999 when United won the Champions League.” Sir Alex Ferguson is mentioned 28 times, more than any other name in the biography.” Spurs tried to go back and remove those references. Pochettino and I talked about the issue and decided that none of that “Pochettino is a renowned builder, as he demonstrated at Spurs after succeeding the sacked Tim Sherwood, working with Harry Kane to develop the recently crowned Ballon d’Or winner, as well as bringing Son Heung-Min to the club for a bargain £22m from Bayer Leverkusen in 2015. If Pochettino can repeat that – a difficult job in United’s circumstances – and reproduce the attacking football, pleasing to the eye and played with relentless energy, then he could finally be the perfect candidate that Ratcliffe has sought in vain to discover until now. Pochettino is also his own man, so it will be intriguing to see how he works with Ratcliffe, Berrada and Wilcox. The path to Pochettino’s sacking at Spurs effectively began after a friendly win against Real Madrid just weeks after their Champions League final defeat, when he made it clear that he was not having enough influence at the club. He enjoys warm relationships with his players, with a history of improvement. It was no coincidence that Cole Palmer enjoyed his best season working under Pochettino at Chelsea, scoring 25 goals in 45 appearances. However, Pochettino is also determined and ruthless, as he demonstrated with an emphatic response to criticism for not calling up players he left out of the United States’ World Cup squad. He said: “When I was a player, when I wasn’t in the squad I didn’t want my manager to call me. The players who didn’t make it will have to draw on every one of those qualities when he takes over at United. Back to that lunch date with Ferguson. Pochettino had the last word that day while the two argued about who would pay the bill. Ferguson said Pochettino could pay if he named an Argentine player who scored in the 1930 World Cup final. Pochettino, in what he claimed was a moment of inspiration, appointed Guillermo Stabile. He won that argument. Now both he and Ferguson hope Pochettino can create more inspirational moments to win something more substantial at United.
