Mauricio Pochettino Leaves USMNT for Manchester United Role

Pochettino decided to leave the United States to join Manchester United, one of the most controversial seats in European football, and it goes to prove that some coaches much rather go to the very worst situation in Europe than be at the very best situation in international football, living in the United States with a humongous budget behind you, with all the players. Listening to your old words. Winning your first four official games of this cycle. None of that was enough for him to stay. And Pochettino, the poacher, is moving on to... But was he fired or did he resign? No, no fire. Manchester United is dropping... Dozens of millions of dollars to pay the rescission clause on the contract so he's free to go. He is asking up to $400 million in reimbursement. He's asking for Jalán and Nico Paz. Just $400 million in transfers. Let's go back to the other side. Yes. And you said, and this happens a lot, you know, baseball is my thing. This happens a lot in baseball. Sometimes baseball teams. Sign a player for a one-year contract, a veteran player, knowing that they are not going to make the playoffs or be close to the playoffs because they will eventually trade the guy to any other team for a few prospects. Now let's go to this situation. Pochettino, U.S. soccer. Do you think, Marcelino, I'm asking you because you are the guru of MLS and all that stuff. Do you think the U.S. soccer knew that having Pochettino for two years after the World Cup, somebody was going to come and say, hey, we want this guy. We've got a doubt. I'm going to give you $100 million to let him go. And you have said, you know what? That is a good business for U.S. soccer, for Pochettino, and for a lot of other people. But was that how much they had to pay? This is a very hefty rescission clause. But that's insane. If you want to break a contract, that's how much it's going to cost you. And to your point, he was very suspicious that he got a new contract right off the World Cup, resigned for a whole new cycle, promises that he's going to be around. And then, me doy la media vuelta y te diré, my friend, no, I don't know, I didn't want to get any copyright, no, no, copyright, copyright, really? Parale, mi chavo, parale. My friends, this is a crisis here in the United States, a process that was looking really, really good, now it's shaky. But if this man... Pep Guardiola comes as the new coach of the United States, like I said in the Latin American Football Club. Que se cuide, Mexico, because I don't know when we could beat that team again. Pep Guardiola has my utter respect. He has won everything, everywhere, as a player and as a coach. And he will be able to unlock now. This is a tough seat, guys. In the United States, as you guys well know, The women national team is the most successful soccer team in the country, by far, and it will take the United States, the men's team, probably 20 years to catch up to the success that they have. The United States men's team is never going to win. They'll never catch up. So, imagine being Pep Guardiola, coming from all the glory and the biggest seed. The biggest bench in the world, Manchester City, and any national team, coming to the United States where people are going to tell you, call me when you are world champion twice or three times, and then maybe... But that's not the goal. The goalpost for the men's team isn't to win the World Cup. It is. For the amount of money that they have. No, but if they advance far into the playoff bracket, the knockout round, that's enough. I mean, look how excited we got that we even made the knockout round. No, no, no, it's not enough anymore. Not anymore. It is not enough anymore. Nobody expects a U.S. men's team to win. The U.S. fans and the team expects them to win. The team, not fans. This is something that... I don't know any U.S. fans that expect them to win. No, this is something Marcelino and I were talking about before the cameras went on. That back, let's go back 20, 25 years, being the coach of the U.S. national team men's, it was like, okay, cool. Fine, anybody can do it. Now it's different. Of course. Now it's different. But you're saying what the expectations are. The expectations are high, but not a World Cup championship. I think that this is a great example. This debate right here, we see what's happening with the U.S. fan base. On one end, you have the core soccer fans that insist that now the goalpost is for the U.S. to become world champion because they have the facilities, they have the player pipeline, they have the money. And on the other side, you have the American sports fan that football doesn't rank high on their preferences in watching, and they still feel like there's a lot of room for them to fail.