According to former Tottenham Hotspur icon Ossie Ardiles, his compatriot Mauricio Pochettino is delaying a return to football, as he is waiting for the Manchester United job. In a recent interview with Sky Sports, the former Spurs boss said he is ready to ready to management after a short break.
Pochettino and Manchester United seem to make sense in some ways. The Argentinian has been continually linked with the hot seat at Old Trafford, even before his exit from Tottenham last year.
Solskjaer under constant pressure at United
Manchester United head coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is under constant pressure. That comes with the territory. However, that pressure intensifies when the team are not winning games. Many do not see the Norwegian as the boss to bring back the glory days in the long-term. Some almost still see him as a caretaker until a more high-profile boss is ready to commit to the challenge of taking over at Old Trafford.
Solskjaer’s managerial career with Manchester United has had more ups and downs than a rollercoaster. Some games he has shown great tactical nous and looked promising. However, other days his team have looked inept and clueless. This inconsistency has led to United’s current league position of 14th in a very congested area of the table. A 3-1 win at Everton last time out after a 2-1 defeat at Turkish team Istanbul Basaksehir perfectly illustrates Manchester United’s mixed fortunes.
Doing an okay job
Manchester United have some very good players, but never seem to be able to find any consistency for a whole season. Some will blame Solskjaer for that and say that he is a poor coach. In reality, though, he is an okay coach, who maybe slightly out of his depth. Whether he will ever become a top coach in the future only time will tell.
Judging from results this season, Ole Gunner Solskjaer is on borrowed time in the United hot seat. If the Red Devils had suffered defeat at Everton last time out he may well have been out of a job. The players stepped up their game and somehow found a very good performance and result. Those results do not come often enough for a team with the reputation of United.
Solskjaer has hung on to his job for a good while and may well turn things around this season. The problem is that the inconsistency is likely to continue while he is in charge at Old Trafford.
Pochettino waiting for a top job
Mauricio Pochettino has been out of work for around a year, which is slightly surprising, as at Tottenham many considered him to be a managerial star. The former Southampton coach turned also-rans Spurs into Premier League title contenders. However, the club from north London under hard-nosed chairman Daniel Levy had a ceiling because they were unwilling to really back Pochettino.
He was fighting with one hand tied behind his back. Yet, he still managed Tottenham to regular top-four finishes and their first-ever Champions League final. He did all that while having a clearly defined football philosophy that included playing attacking football. That philosophy would go down well at most clubs in world football.
The problem is the jobs he was most often linked with Manchester United and Real Madrid have not been available during his break from the game. Ironically enough, Los Blancos are not enjoying the best of league campaigns either. However, it seems Pochettino fancies the challenge at United if Solskjaer is fired.
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Will Mauricio Pochettino be the next Manchester United boss?
