USA make statement Pochettino hire as elite coach follows England snub with unprecedented move

David Ornstein has reported that the USMNT have come to an agreement with Mauricio Pochettino, who will become their new head coach after beating out multiple other candidates.

Pochettino has never managed an international side before. He has, though, had relative success in club football, guiding Tottenham to second in the Premier League, as well as a Champions League final, during his tenure there.

He has been without a job since Chelsea sacked him following a sixth-placed Premier League finish last season, which was an improvement of six places on their previous campaign.

It was suggested that Pochettino could be under consideration by England, but that Lee Carsley has now been given the role on an interim basis suggests they are waiting for a bigger name to become available.

Pochettino has now made his next step anyway, with Ornstein reporting in the Athletic that the Argentine has agreed to become the new USA head coach.

It was suggested of late that he was the top target to take over from the last manager , Gregg Berhalter. And with England since overlooking Pochettino and making their move, that might have motivated him to accept the USMNT role.

The Athletic suggests that while he was the top target, there were still other candidates in the running when the initial report on the interest was released.

But after conversations with the Argentine’s camp, he is definitively seen as the right man to lead the USA forward.

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US Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker already knows Pochettino, from their time together at Southampton, so it seems that was one of the driving forces in the manager being pursued in the first place.

The move is an unprecedented one for Pochettino, having never managed a national side before, and for the US, it seems a step in the right direction, hiring a very experienced coach from outside the country, for the first time since Jurgen Klinsmann.

Since the German left his post in 2016, five different coaches have led the US, and they have all been Americans with little experience outside the country.

As such, the hire of Pochettino could be the change in tack needed for the side to be inspired to big things.

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