United States men’s national team manager Mauricio Pochettino has denied a report that he interviewed with Premier League club Brentford for their now-filled coaching gig, according to Fox Sports.
Pochettino was asked about it on Saturday after a report out of Ireland said he was a candidate ahead of facing Costa Rica in the Gold Cup quarterfinals. While Pochettino has been a successful Premier League manager overseeing Southampton, Tottenham, and Chelsea, he’s under contract with the USMNT until the end of the 2026 World Cup after just being appointed to lead the USMNT in September of 2024 when they moved on from Gregg Berhalter.
Brentford became the final team in the Premier League to name their head coach, with Keith Andrews being tabbed to replace Thomas Frank.
“This club never contacted me,” Pochettino said, according to the report. “I never talked to them.”
This doesn’t mean that he wasn’t on Brentford’s shortlist to replace Frank, but with Pochettino being under contract, any club would need to talk to U.S. Soccer before contacting him. In the middle of a tournament where he’s looking to find out what depth he has before the World Cup in 2026, it’s a distraction that isn’t needed when the manager needs to be all-in on the team and maximizing the player pool.
For the USMNT, while results haven’t been what most would’ve hoped under Pochettino so far, he’s the best hope that they have at the World Cup, as changing managers now would not allow enough time for them to instill their own system with the national team. Winning the Gold Cup will be a challenge for this side, missing key starters, but it would do a lot in changing the tide around 12 months out from arguably the most important World Cup in the national team’s history.
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