Mauricio Pochettino identifies seven Man Utd stars he is desperate to work with

Mauricio Pochettino is relishing the opportunity to work with a number of Manchester United stars when he arrives at Old Trafford.

The former Tottenham and Chelsea boss has agreed a two-and-a-half year deal to replace Michael Carrick in Manchester with his first game in charge set to be away to Liverpool on Sunday 22 November.

Marcus Rashford could be one of the big winners of the club’s latest appointment with The Daily Telegraph reporting Pochettino has ‘always loved’ the England international.

‘Mauricio has always loved Rashford,’ one source told the newspaper. ‘He will put an arm around him and give him that same kind of love he showed to Dele Alli [at Spurs]. Then it’s up to Rashford.’

Rashford spent last season on loan at Barcelona and was expected to make the move permanent until the Spanish champions backed out of their option to buy. The 29-year-old also spent the second-half of the 2024-25 season on loan at Aston Villa having been frozen out of the team by Ruben Amorim.

After United failed to find a buyer for him in the summer transfer window, Rashford was reintegrated back into the squad by Carrick in pre-season.

He has started five matches in all competitions this season but a hip injury has ruled him out of the last five.

Rashford hopes to be available for the trip to Liverpool after the international break.

Pochettino will also be reunited with Luke Shaw, who he nurtured as an emerging teenage talent at Southampton before joining United for £27million in 2014.

Shaw is among six other players Pochettino is specifically looking forward to working with alongside Kobbie Mainoo, Patrick Dorgu, Carlos Baleba, Amad Diallo and Bruno Fernandes.

Fernandes has rejected United’s latest new contract offer, casting doubt on his future after the captain publicly criticised Carrick following the Champions League defeat to Como in October.

Pochettino was eager to sign Fernandes back in 2019 when he was still in charge of Tottenham. Spurs were unable to strike a deal with Sporting with the Portugal international joining United six months later.