Man Utd face £20m bill to sign Mauricio Pochettino

Detailed summary

Manchester United face yet another substantial compensation bill of up to £20m should they hire Mauricio Pochettino and fire Michael Carrick.

Manchester United face yet another substantial compensation bill of up to £20m should they hire Mauricio Pochettino and fire Michael Carrick.

Talks are underway between the club and former Tottenham boss Pochettino to become their next manager. Carrick is poised to be relieved of his duties following a meeting of the club’s senior figures in Monaco on Wednesday.

The i Paper has been told Pochettino has a clause in his contract with the USA national team, which he only signed in the summer, meaning that any elite club wanting to prize the Argentine from his current role will only pay $10m, just over £7m, rather than the full four-year deal cost.

However, it is understood that Pochettino wants to bring his trusted assistants with him, as he has everywhere he has been, which could add as much as £5m, one source said, to the final bill.

Chief confidant and assistant coach Jesus Perez, first-team coach Miguel D’Agostino and goalkeeper coach Antonio Jimenez have worked with Pochettino in every job since his first role in 2009 at former club Espanyol. Bringing them to Old Trafford is almost certainly going to be non-negotiable.

It is unlikely, at this stage, Pochettino will keep any of Carrick’s staff on board and will want to bring his own team in.

This, along with the cost of paying Carrick off – he also has an early release clause in his contract that would see him receive around £3m – could take the overall outlay, which did initially seem to be reasonable, to around the £20m mark.

This is on top of the £19m shelled out to hire and fire Ruben Amorim and his staff, which was only reduced to this amount after the Portuguese coach landed another job at AC Milan.

Erik ten Hag’s swift exit also meant another £12m expenditure. Dan Ashworth, who United coveted for longer than he was in the job, cost over £15m to bring in and then acrimoniously part ways with months later,

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