Pochettino reveals Ferguson lunch story and admits he wants another shot at the Premier League

Mauricio Pochettino has rekindled speculation about a potential move to Manchester United after revealing the story behind a long-rumoured lunch with Sir Alex Ferguson and admitting he wants one more crack at winning the Premier League.

The USMNT head coach, speaking in an interview conducted last year, described how Ferguson reached out through the League Managers Association to arrange a meeting in London during Pochettino’s time at Tottenham Hotspur — a lunch that has since been cited as the moment United first identified the Argentine as a long-term managerial target.

“It was a meeting in London between colleagues, between a genius and an apprentice,” Pochettino said. The afternoon produced a memorable moment when the two men fell into a friendly dispute over who would settle the bill.

“When we asked for the bill, I wanted to take it, and so did he. We started arguing over who’d pay,” Pochettino recalled. “He said, ‘Stop Mauricio, I’m going to ask you a question. If you answer correctly, you pay. If not, I’ll pay.’ He said, ‘Name an Argentine player who scored in the 1930 World Cup final.’ I replied, ‘Stabile.’ He couldn’t believe it. The name came to me out of nowhere. In the end, I paid the bill.”

Despite the warmth of that encounter, the move to Old Trafford never materialised across subsequent stints at Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. Pochettino signed a contract with the United States national team running through to 2030, and led the USMNT at the home World Cup earlier this year.

Yet his ambitions in club football remain undiminished. “After that, I’ve always said I came so close to winning the Premier League and Champions League, and want to try again,” he said. “I’d like to be part of a project with the ambition of winning both.”

The timing of those remarks carries added weight. Michael Carrick is expected to be relieved of his duties at Old Trafford during November’s international break, reopening a managerial search that has circled back to Pochettino’s name more than once over the past decade. For now, the 52-year-old remains committed to the international stage, with the USMNT facing Haiti in a Concacaf Nations League double header this month.