Youth, intensity, belief: United ready to gamble on Pochettino

• But Pochettino's likely appointment is not without risk. His brief tenures at Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea were less successful.

USA head coach Mauricio Pochettino looks on during a past match.English Premier League football match on May 11, 2024. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)

With a reputation for developing youth and inspiring players and fans to buy into his brand of high-intensity football, Mauricio Pochettino appears on the cusp of taking the reins at troubled Premier League giants Manchester United.

In a move expected to end Pochettino's two-year tenure as USA coach, the Argentine reportedly reached a verbal agreement Wednesday to replace Michael Carrick following United's worst start to a season in 40 years.

United, who have cycled through 11 managers (including caretakers) and failed to win a single league title since Alex Ferguson's 2013 retirement, are desperately in need of a leader who can bring identity, stability and belief to an expensive-but-fragmented squad, and their disillusioned fans.

So the appeal of an inspirational coach who had his Southampton squad walk barefoot across hot coals, took Tottenham Hotspur to a Champions League final, and inspired a nation to believe the US could beat anyone at last summer's World Cup on home soil, is not hard to spot.

Pochettino spoke often before the World Cup of his desire to transform "expectation into energy", and "create amazing energy between the fans and us."

Though the team's last-16 exit was not an unmitigated success, the US demolished Paraguay 4-1 in one of the tournament's best attacking displays and won its first knockout game since 2002.

"When you are free, you perform. When you feel happy, you perform.... Pressure is a thing that, if you don't deal perfectly with it, can be heavy," Pochettino told reporters.

-'Pushed me'-

There has been no shortage of pressure at United in the past decade.

A club that dominated English football through much of the 1990s and 2000s has bounced between every type of manager, playing style and tactical formation imaginable.

Pochettino favors a 4-2-3-1, with emphasis on quick-passing breaks from the back, and high pressing out of possession.

Unusually for a big-club manager, Pochettino has often prioritized young talent, trusting that up-and-coming stars can be blooded in the first team.

"If a player deserves to play, if they are 17, 18, 19 or 20, it's the same for us," Pochettino told The Guardian in 2015, the year future Ballon d'Or-winner Harry Kane truly broke out as a major star at Tottenham.

"If they deserve to play and show character and maturity to be given the responsibility. But for that, you need to build the player."

Kane this week told reporters that his former coach "had a big impact on my career and definitely my development."

"At that stage of my career I needed his guidance and the way he pushed me, not just on the pitch but off the pitch as well, he was really, really helpful," he said.

Pochettino threw 21-year-old Alex Freeman into his World Cup starting XI -- Freeman defended brilliantly and scored against Australia -- and handed out 13 debuts in recent friendlies.

United have high hopes for star youngsters like Kobbie Mainoo, Leny Yoro and Shea Lacey.

-'Better times'-

But Pochettino's likely appointment is not without risk. His brief tenures at Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea were less successful.

Pochettino reportedly grew disillusioned with the giant egos of a star-studded PSG team that included Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi, and struggled with the highly hands-on approach of Chelsea's billionaire owners.

Both could be factors again in Manchester.

And then there is the stick most frequently used to beat Pochettino -- his lack of silverware.

Pochettino has lost five finals, including the Champions League with Tottenham, and his only league title came with PSG.

And those glory years with Spurs -- where he was beloved by players and fans alike, despite never quite getting the team across the line -- are almost a decade in the past.

"Pochettino himself is like a walking vision of better times and diminished powers," wrote the Guardian's Barney Ronay.

In hiring a 54-year-old Pochettino, United would be gambling that both club and manager can successfully roll back the clock.