Mauricio Pochettino’s main focus is on the U.S. men’s national team.
Pochettino denied recent reports of interviewing with English Premier League club Brentford earlier this month, the Argentine confirmed in an interview with Fox Sports on Saturday. Irish outlet The 42 reported this weekend that Brentford interviewed Pochettino for their managerial vacancy before hiring Keith Andrews to fill the role.
The USMNT are preparing for tonight’s CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal clash with Costa Rica tonight and Pochettino eased any potential worries about his departure from the program.
“This club never contacted me,” Pochettino said. “I never talked to them.”
Pochettino was previously linked with a potential return to Tottenham earlier this summer after the London club fired manager Ange Postecoglou despite a victory in the UEFA Europa League Final over Manchester United. Pochettino managed Spurs for over five years from 2014-2019 before eventually moving to Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea respectively.
Tottenham proceeded to fill its opening by hiring Brentford boss Thomas Frank, which later led to the Bees beginning their search for a new manager. Pochettino was listed as one of the club’s reported candidates, but instead promoted Andrews after he served as Frank’s assistant since 2023.
The USMNT have won eight of their 13 matches of the Pochettino-era, including all three matches in the current Gold Cup tournament. With only friendlies coming for the program after this competition, the USMNT will aim to win the Gold Cup and give Pochettino his first trophy lift as an international manager.
Should the USMNT defeat Costa Rica on Sunday, they will meet either Canada or Guatemala in the semifinal round in St. Louis. Mexico-Honduras square off on the other side of the bracket in Santa Clara.
Guatemala downs Canada. On is to finish off Costa Rica. I knew Guate was going to down Canada. That team took a nose dive in play after hammering Honduras.
Poch has lost the locker room, this was a horrid hiring.
Striker you should be in better mood after your favs Bethune, Ryan, and Thompson all played well today.
What? And where do you get that information?
Striker91,
Looks like Pochettino found the locker room. He must have had those apple air tags on them.
if you read the Fox denial, it’s “I never talked to them.” or interviewed. right. they would have talked with his Mr. 10%. they know his tactics. they know talking to him personally is tampering. if they wanted him they’d either ask USSF to talk or simply pay the buyout. i assume he was a fallback option and when the others fell in line there was no need to chase our guy.
in terms of why this might have happened, as of the friendlies we looked objectively horrid. this should scare teams off but it might have implied he’d soon be available. we do good enough in group and he’s back on stable footing. he doesn’t need a trap door out.
i don’t believe that analysis but i think it covers the USSF fanboy mentality and poch’s risks. mexico’s 2-0 saudi margin — double ours — hints our group stage games were less than emphatic. we continue to not play much effective defense, and our offensive approach is schizo — sometimes berhalter ball, sometimes more aggressive. we do things like build from the back that cost us goals every 2-3 games.
CR tied mexico. i expect a “game” this evening.
If you had watched the Mexico vs Saudi Arabia match you would realize it was pretty much the same match as ours vs the Saudis, minus Freeman’s two school boy miscues. Mexico was anemic in the first half. They got their first goal really out of hustle off a turnover and the keeper spilled it. The second goal Gimenez missed the header and it bounced in off the defender’s face. It was not a dominating performance. And yes tonight will be a game, Kaylor Navas and Miguel Herrera will likely make sure of that.
Who cares if Mexico beat Saudi 2-0.
it’s a crude tool for estimating how good an opponent is. i figured it out back in my youth tournament and college days, when the internet didn’t exist and you couldn’t find video of opponents. you’d look up college scores on soccer america.
you look for teams playing a common opponent or a team you are familiar with and know how you stack. if we beat saudi by x and they beat saudi by y, and y>x, ok, that’s a tough opponent, they played saudi better than we did.
mexico played saudi better than we did, and then CR tied mexico. so assuming we make the final mexico will be another tough one.
and not every game plays to the form chart but it’s good to know.
I gotta think that if he actually spoke to any team, Brentford would be waaaaay down on the bottom of the list, that’s why I don’t believe this
brentford is top 10 EPL and their combination of high GF and high GA suggests potential for immediate growth if you solidified the defense. they have roughly newcastle’s GF. you trim 10 GA and it’s a top 5 team that looks similar to newcastle or CFC.
I think what he means is they aren’t a top 10 reputation. They’ve been in EPL for four seasons. Before that the last time they were in the top division was 1946. They went from 1954 to 1992 without even being in the 2nd tier of England. Someone with Poch’s CV isn’t going to Brentford no matter how many goals they scored or conceded. Also, Poch isn’t going from PSG and their unlimited deep pockets to money ball Brentford.
Look regardless of he did or didnt this the way of top managers. American fans need to get used to this. Thus happens all of the time with top managers. The US is used to managers that haven’t exactly been top managers. Poch will have the pick of the litter of jobs after the WC especially if the USMNT does well. He isnt leaving for Brentford. Also I firmly believe he wants that Argentina Job after 2026.
Good point you make on being coveted by clubs. I think we’re starting to see some of what Poch is all about. He deals with things differently. There’s a calmness about him yet purpose and drive that is very evident. His players will have to meet standards he will encourage them but won’t coddle them. I’m glad he’s our guy and understand it may only be for another year.
What pisses me off is irresponsible Journal ism when people connect dots and assume things but don’t have any facts to base them upon. That seems to be the norm for most journalist on all forms of news be at sports or whatever. We live in a world where everybody wants to be the guy breaking the story, even if they’re peddling a lie lying is common place in our society and quite frankly it shows a complete lack of ethics when somebody lies. They honestly should be called out for it and tongue lashed. We can’t keep standing around doing nothing about it. Fuck the 42.
“I think we’re starting to see some of what Poch is all about. He deals with things differently.”
If you mean in comparison to what we are used to as a USMNT manager?
Yes, Pochettino is different. Unless he’s faking taking MLS seriously he seems to be free of interference from the old boy network.
1. It is not unusual for managers taking a team into the World Cup to already have a Post WC job lined up and everyone being aware of it. Normally a lame duck manager is not a good idea but with a national team managers the teams are only together for that particular tournament.
Once the World Cup is over, for whatever the next vital game is that they have to play, the USMNT will likely be significantly different.
And the team building process will start all over again. The USMNT is on a 4 year cycle not a 2 year cycle like most of the big boys, so they can’t keep the team running as a going concern.
Back in the real world, Pochettino is still the final word on who gets on the final roster and who gets to play in the WC tournament. This is the main carrot for the players. So there is no loss impact for 2026 , which is all that matters.
2. Pochettino does not have to prove anything to anyone. It is going to be a long time before he stops having his name come up when top jobs are open. Even if the USMNT is grouped in the World Cup his reputation is unlikely to suffer.
A.) ON PAPER, his players will likely be the least talented team in his group which is how it usually is for the USMNT.
B.) By letting Gregg fart around with the Copa America team, they handed Pochettino a shit sandwich in terms of time and games to turn this team around.
C.) Our media core of ex-USMNT players will tell anyone who asks that the players are not up to the high standards set by Alexi Lalas, Landon, etc.. And they might even be right.
D.) Despite what his critics have said, Pochettino clearly has a plan in place.
My guess is, because the likely best parts of this team won’t be in place until the last minute, it will be a work in progress until the last minute.
Glove69,
Irresponsible journalism = clickbait, and internet clicks are the currency of today’s internet world.