EXCLUSIVE: Pochettino Drops Carrington Bombshell Before First Session, Demands INEOS Rip Up Star’s Contract
Mauricio Pochettino has not even blown a whistle on the Carrington training pitches yet, and already the tectonic plates beneath Old Trafford are shifting violently.
With the ink barely dry on a two-and-a-half-year contract that keeps him in Manchester until the summer of 2029, the incoming Argentine boss has reportedly issued an astonishing ultimatum to Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS football leadership: tear up the contract of a high-earning first-team regular before the January transfer window opens, or risk watching another managerial tenure implode before spring.
Pochettino, who officially takes the reins on November 18 following his final international duties with the United States against Haiti, is stepping into an unprecedented crisis. Following the dismissal of Michael Carrick on Thursday after United’s worst league start in four decades, the 20-time English champions sit 18th in the Premier League table with just eight points from ten matches.
“I Don’t Have Time for Passengers”
According to senior insiders briefed on the final round of negotiations between Pochettino’s camp and United’s hierarchy, the 54-year-old was brutally candid about the cultural rot he perceives inside the first-team dressing room.
“I am taking over a club sitting 18th in the table and fighting a relegation battle, I don’t have time for passengers,” Pochettino allegedly told Ratcliffe during a tense summit earlier this week. “There is one big-name player in that dressing room whose attitude is poisoning the younger lads—get rid of him before January, or I won’t survive until summer.”
While the identity of the targeted star has been closely guarded by Old Trafford executives, the parameters laid out by Pochettino narrow the field considerably. The incoming manager is said to have presented video clips from United’s recent humiliations—including the 3-0 home capitulation to Bournemouth, the 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge, and the chaotic 4-4 draw with Aston Villa last weekend—to highlight a glaring lack of defensive tracking and body language that he views as toxic to impressionable academy graduates and young signings like Kobbie Mainoo, Leny Yoro, Shea Lacey, and Ayden Heaven.
A Dressing Room on Edge
The timing of the leak has sent shockwaves through Carrington during the November international break. With United paying roughly £7.4 million to buy Pochettino out of his U.S. Soccer contract, INEOS have staked their credibility on the former Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain, and Chelsea manager.
“Poch watched how things unraveled at Chelsea when standards slipped in the locker room, and he swore he would never walk into a fire without a hose again,” a source close to the Argentine’s coaching staff revealed. “He sees young talents like Patrick Dorgu, Carlos Baleba, and Benjamin Šeško looking around at senior figures who jog back when the ball is lost. To him, that is a terminal disease.”
For INEOS, granting Pochettino’s wish presents a massive financial and logistical headache. Tearing up the deal of a marquee earner—whose wages comfortably exceed £250,000 a week—would require a hefty mutual termination payout at a time when the club is already navigating tight Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) margins after spending heavily over the summer to bring in the likes of Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos.
Baptism of Fire at Anfield
United’s hierarchy had hoped Pochettino’s arrival would bring immediate calm after a turbulent autumn that saw Carrick unable to replicate the momentum of last season’s third-place finish. Instead, senior players returning from international duty next week will walk into a hyper-charged atmosphere where nobody’s status is safe.
Pochettino will take his first training session on Thursday, November 19, giving him barely 72 hours to assess his squad before a daunting baptism of fire: a trip to Anfield to face arch-rivals Liverpool on Sunday, November 22.
If INEOS blink and refuse to back their new manager’s ruthless demand, the battle lines at Old Trafford may already be drawn before Pochettino has even picked his first starting XI.
