Pochettino must clean house at Man Utd following Carrick exit, says Neville

Mauricio Pochettino must completely tear down Manchester United's squad and ensure he has total control of recruitment if he succeeds Michael Carrick, according to Gary Neville.

On Thursday, United confirmed Carrick had been relieved of his duties, less than six months after he was appointed as the Red Devils' head coach on a permanent basis.

It is the latest embarrassing managerial U-turn by Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS regime, who also sacked Erik ten Hag in October 2024, just four months after handing him a new contract.

With Ruben Amorim also having a miserable stint at Old Trafford, United are now looking to appoint their fourth permanent boss since INEOS took control of football operations at the club in February 2024.

United's tally of eight points after 10 games has them rooted in the Premier League's relegation zone, and even when assuming three-points-for-a-win all-time, they have only had worse starts at this stage in three other campaigns in their history (zero points in 1930-31, six in 1892-93, seven in 1972-73, also eight in 1960-61 and 1986-87).

That miserable position has not appeared to put Pochettino off, with the former Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea coach reportedly set to leave his role as the United States' head coach to join a club he has long been linked with.

But United legend Neville has warned the Argentine that a complete rebuild of United's squad is necessary if he is to fare any better than his predecessors.

"I think the mistake Mauricio could make is that he comes in and gets an initial bounce, maybe even a six-month bounce [and keeps the players]," Neville told Sky Sports.

"But I remember seeing him at Tottenham, in the early days, and within the first six to eight months in the job, he actually had a whiteboard in his office with all the players' names.

"He'd moved a group of players over to the left-hand side of the board and said, 'these are the ones I need to get rid of, then these are the ones I know I can build around'.

"He's got to identify that very quickly at United, and I'm sure he will. He's more experienced now than he was at Tottenham, but he has a big job to do in terms of players exiting.

"Manchester United have been really poor at getting rid of players in the last 10 years. But they're going to have to invest, and I hope Pochettino has done a couple of things on the way in – I hope he's protected himself with his contract, and I'm sure he's stated that he needs a massive transfer budget.

"I think he needs two defenders straight away, to get Manchester United anywhere near where they want to be this season. And the other thing is, he has to make sure he takes charge of recruitment."

Carrick initially had a hugely positive impact upon replacing Amorim on an interim basis in January. 

He led United to a third-place finish in the Premier League last season, winning 12 of his 17 games at the helm in 2025-26 (70%, D3 L2). The Red Devils also averaged 1.94 goals per game in that span, while conceding 1.05.

But looking back, Neville regrets the fact Carrick was appointed on a permanent basis, saying he always feared things might end this way for his former team-mate.

He added: "I'm sad that it's come to this. I think I've said this quite a lot in the last 10 years when Manchester United managers have been moved on because it means, obviously, that the club are not being successful on the pitch. 

"So there's sadness, more sadness this time, probably, because it's Michael.

"I wish he hadn't got the job at the end of the season. I think at that time, I pretty much said that I felt this could happen. I didn't expect it to happen this quickly, but it is what it is.

"The position in the league is terrible, obviously being in the bottom three, in the relegation zone, and it was inevitable that the decision had to be made."

United's first game back from the international break is a huge meeting with rivals Liverpool at Anfield, on November 22.