Gary Neville and the rest of the football world are coming to terms with the strong possibility that Manchester United will sack Michael Carrick before hiring Mauricio Pochettino as his successor.

After a shocking start to the 2026/27 season, Manchester United are close to another mid-season managerial change. As things stand, Michael Carrick has been sacked, and there’s a verbal agreement with Mauricio Pochettino.

The axe dropped on Carrick on Thursday morning as United sit 18th after winning just one of their first 10 league matches. It looks like they’re going to invest their trust in Pochettino to turn things around by taking advantage of the Premier League experience he gained at Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea.

All eyes are now on the appointment of Pochettino as the club says goodbye to a great servant, who struggled to deliver results this season.

Gary Neville believes Mauricio Pochettino can quickly fix two Man Utd problems

United’s pursuit of Pochettino was widely reported at a time Carrick was still head coach. That has led Rio Ferdinand to criticise the club, while Peter Schmeichel is disappointed by their treatment of Carrick.

Neville is the latest former United player to talk about the possibility of Pochettino arriving at Old Trafford. He referred to Harry Kane’s time under the Argentine coach and how his training sessions were tough.

The former United captain believes Pochettino could quickly address two key issues if he succeeds Carrick. They include the lack of running and structure.

“So I know that Harry Kane said that his training sessions were really tough,” Neville said on the latest episode of Stick To Football.

“There were runs after training on Tuesdays and Wednesdays that were really hard, which used to almost floor them. He’d bring them down before the game, but they were always fit, his teams, to be fair.

“I mean, that’s one thing I think he will deal with straight away. He obviously has a lot of experience now. He knows, I think, how to coach a team. There’s something about Manchester United in this last month or two that I felt was just very basic when you’re watching them. That’s a big problem, that the other teams look like they know what they’re doing more than United.”