Backing Pochettino With a Proper United Rebuild

A Manchester United supporter argues Pochettino is the right appointment, but only if the club backs a ruthless clear-out and uses smart free transfers alongside key paid signings to rebuild the squad.

In hiring Pochettino I think (hope) Manchester United have finally managed to get the balance right and hire the right manager.

Someone who understands the league, has a track record of developing young players and improving others, someone who plays an exciting, aggressive style of football, as well as someone who has experience of challenges and things not quite going to plan. That last one is something I think we often overlook, we see a blemish on their CV as solely a bad thing. Yet hiring someone who has never had things go wrong and had to either work through it or fail to means you have absolutely no idea if they can handle it. As a teacher I understand that you learn more from your failures than you do your successes. Pochettino will have had time to reflect on what ultimately went wrong at Spurs towards the end of his tenure, and what he could have done differently to change the outcome, just like with PSG and Chelsea. Each of those failures came from different issues, and Pochettino should be all the wiser for that.

However, we could hire Pep Guardiola and unless we change how things are run behind the scenes even he would fail at our club.

The management structure needs to truly back Pochettino and a full rebuild. I think they started that under Amorim; they removed several high profile players from the squad and started to clear the decks. But under Carrick it felt like they took a backwards step. Bringing Rashford back, extending Maguire's contract, not being ruthless to get more players out of the squad, and not being as savvy with their signings.

Every single player who was part of the first squad prior to EtH needs to be moved on. Amad might be the exception as he wasn't really a part of the first team squad until Amorim took over. However, players like Maguire, Shaw, Dalot, Bruno and Rashford 100% need to be moved on. They have been the senior players who lead the dressing room that downed tools on Ole, Rangnick, EtH, Amorim and now Carrick.

They have proven that they don't have the right mentality to do what is needed when things get ugly.

We cannot allow ANY of those 5 to remain at the club next season. Not if we are truly backing Pochettino to be successful.

We then have a raft of other players who need to be moved on as they have also proven themselves as not good enough for various reasons. Players like Onana, Bayindir, Martinez, Mazraoui, Ugarte, and Mount. Probably Josh Zirkzee as well, although that depends on how he does over the rest of this season. I do think that he might actually be able to be useful/successful under Pochettino. His skill set and his record isn't too dissimilar to Harry Kane's when Pochettino took over at Spurs (although he is a few years older than Kane was at that time). Now I don't expect him to turn into a Harry Kane regen or even score anything close to the number of goals Kane has managed. But both were strikers who preferred to drop deep and help in build up, with high technical skills with fairly average physical skills, with both lacking that killer instinct. If Pochettino can turn Zirkzee into half the player Kane has been then we should definitely keep him.

That is 11 maybe 12 players the club need to shift this summer with most of them needing replacing. Which will be challenging, especially given Wilcox's preference for EPL proven players.

We will 100% need to look at the free player market next summer, there are some interesting players on there who we could and maybe should be looking at.

Players like: Fikiyo Tomori (CB), David Raum (LB), Calvin Bassey (CB), Tyrick Mitchell (LB), Arthur Avom (CM), Yasin Ayari (CM), Milan van Ewijk (RB), Omar El Hilali (RB), Frank Anguissa (CM), Hicham Boudaoui (CM), Stanislav Lobotka (DM), or Ruben Loftus-Cheek (CM).

All of which offer some good value in building a solid foundation. Especially given that we will likely be losing both our first team RB's and two first team LB's (Dalot, Mazraoui, Shaw and Amass), we will probably need to sign two RB's and a LB. As well as losing two CB's in Maguire and Martinez, and with fitness concerns over MdL. We will need at least two experienced CB's next summer.

If we could sign at least one full-back and CB on a free it certainly frees up funds for buying first choice targets.

I think a player like Dorgu could develop under Pochettino in a similar way to Danny Rose. Which means if we could get someone like Mitchell or Raum in on a free that solves the LB issue with zero expenditure. Likewise, there is no point buying two RB's, so if we could get someone like van Ewijk or El Hilali on a free then we can spend more on a first choice option with the free transfer offering support, rather than having to split the funds to buy both the first choice and the back-up.

At CB players like Tomori and Bassey look like ideal support options for a Pochettino defence. Both EPL proven, great experience, both are quick and mobile enough to play the way Pochettino likes. Getting one or even both of them would free up a lot of funds to maybe go out and buy a premium CB option to be first choice, giving you MdL and one of Tomori/Bassey as back-up, along with both Yoro and Heaven as young developing options.

Effectively we could rebuild the entire defence with only having to pay for two signings (RB and CB), while bringing in a further 3 signings on free transfers (RB, CB, and LB).

Likewise, with Mount and Ugarte leaving we could maybe do with a little more cover in midfield. Depending on how Pochettino rates our current options and how they adapt, the roles of another midfielder could change. Well again there are plenty of options available on the free transfer market that could help plug that gap and avoid us having to spend money on a role that is more about squad depth than being first choice.

We will likely need to sign at least one, maybe two, forwards for Pochettino to give him strength in depth and balance in attack. There are fewer options in those areas for free transfers; therefore, signing a few of them in other areas (specifically in squad roles rather than first choice) frees up the funds to spend elsewhere.

If we cleared out the old guard and the ones who aren't good enough (those 11-12 players) but then brought in:

RB - Kayode (40m)

RB - van Ewijk (free)

CB - Schlotterbeck/Bastoni/Branthwaite (40-60m)

CB - Tomori (free)

LB - Mitchel/Raum (free)

CM - free transfer (take your pick)

ST - Marcus Thuram (20m one year left on his deal)

Young flexible high potential forward like Junior Korupi (80m).

That would in my opinion represent a real squad rebuild, clearing out the players who have consistently let the club down, and bringing in the kind of quality and depth that will give the manager a real shot of being successful.

Then you can assess the squad each year and build on it to improve it to the point where it needs to be. That is supporting your manager, and unless Pochettino gets something along these lines then he will not be receiving the support he needs.

Written by Shappy November 14 2026 13:59:48