Man United hires Mauricio Pochettino, who leaves US job with task of reviving former power

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Mauricio Pochettino was hired as Manchester United's head coach on Friday, agreeing to leave his job with the U.S. national team to take on the challenge of reviving the fortunes of English soccer's once dominant force.

Just three months after announcing a contract to lead the Americans through the 2030 World Cup, the U.S. Soccer Federation said Pochettino will depart next next week for Old Trafford. The 20-time English champion is in the relegation zone after 10 games of the Premier League season.

He has signed a 2 1/2-year contract and will officially take over on Nov. 18 ahead of the match at Liverpool four days later, becoming United's eighth permanent coach or manager since club great Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.

United said the 54-year-old Argentine was “renowned for his high-intensity, attacking style of football, his dedication to building strong, cohesive teams and his outstanding record of developing individual players," and had “consistently performed at the highest level of football across multiple leagues.”

Pochettino's appointment comes one day after Michael Carrick was fired for overseeing United's worst league start in 40 years, with one of the biggest teams in world soccer languishing 18th in the Premier League.

Pochettino and his assistants will remain with the U.S. team for the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinals against Haiti on Saturday and Tuesday.

“There is tremendous talent in the U.S. player pool from the youth teams through to the senior team, and it’s one of the reasons we have so much belief for the future of U.S. Soccer,” Pochettino said in a statement.

Pochettino took over the U.S. team in the fall of 2024 and led the co-host Americans to the round of 16 at this year’s World Cup. The USSF is likely to sound out Pep Guardiola’s interest and could also consider elevating Under-23 coach Steve Cherundolo, a former national team defender. Cherundolo will lead a senior national team training camp next month with players mostly from Major League Soccer.

USSF CEO JT Batson and chief operating officer Dan Helfrich will lead the search, assisted by women’s national team coach Emma Hayes and former American defender Oguchi Onyewu, a member of the USSF staff.

“Mauricio has left a lasting mark on U.S. Soccer through his leadership, professionalism and commitment to our players and culture,” Batson said in a statement. “What we are most proud of goes beyond the wins. He and his staff raised standards, strengthened our culture and created clearer connections from the youth national teams to the senior team.”

After coaching Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea in the Premier League, Espanyol in Spain and winning the French title with Paris Saint-Germain, Pochettino takes a job that has proved to be too big for a succession of managers since Ferguson led the team to a record 13 Premier League titles and two Champions League crowns during a near 27-year tenure.

United has not won the league since Ferguson’s last season in 2013 and has been overtaken by rivals Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Champions League-winning coaches Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho failed to meet United’s expectations, while David Moyes, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Erik ten Hag and Carrick also came up short.

Despite winning the French league with PSG in 2022, arguably Pochettino’s greatest achievement was turning Tottenham into a serial title contender in the Premier League and also leading the club to the Champions League final in 2019.

He has never won a major trophy in England, most recently losing the final of the English League Cup with Chelsea in 2024.

AP Sports Writer Charles Odum in Fayetteville, Georgia, contributed to this report.

Robson reported from Manchester, England, and Blum from New York.

James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

FILE - United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino celebrates with his players following the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between the United States and Bosnia in Santa Clara, Calif., near San Francisco, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

U.S. Men's National Soccer Team head coach Mauricio Pochettino walks on the pitch during practice, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026, in Fayetteville, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

U.S. Men's National Soccer Team head coach Mauricio Pochettino walks on the pitch during practice, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026, in Fayetteville, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

FILE - United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino acknowledges supporters after the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between the United States and Belgium in Seattle, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

BERLIN (AP) — It was the sound of e-silence.

No Microsoft Outlook email chimes, no Teams message pings, no new notifications and, very possibly, no work getting done.

Microsoft 365 teetered on the edge of becoming Microsoft 364 as the global outage stretched from Thursday into, ironically (or fittingly, depending on your personal outlook), Friday the 13th. The disruption has impacted an unknown number of netizens, but the total could be as high as 450 million — the figure the tech giant touts as the number of paid customers of the Microsoft 365 apps.

Many of us were doing the same thing: Refresh, refresh, refresh.

But what really happens when an essential workplace tool goes quiet and the silence is heard around the world?

Sadly, it seems, the extended break online did not mean that we went outside — or even offline. Thousands used the 21st century technology of social media to complain about the 20th century invention of email. Memes sprang up across the internet as brands like airlines rushed to capitalize early Friday on an unexpected long weekend.

“Emails can wait. The world has been waiting long enough,” Air India wrote on X. “Consider this your cue to plan that getaway.”

The airline's post featured a photo with a view out an airplane window with the quip, “A change of outlook we'd highly recommend.”

Burger King instead opted for a message directed at Microsoft: “whoever’s troubleshooting and working on the outage rn…take your time. go out and get a Whopper.”

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, valiantly pitched some healthy offline ideas like taking a break from screens or stretching and walking.

We could do that. We could take advantage of a world and a workday where our inboxes don't demand all of our attention. We could savor the unexpected serenity of an enforced e-silence. We could take a walk! Really, we could.

Or we could stay inside, tethered to our laptops and desktops and smartphones, drafting hot takes instead of emails.

And again: Refresh, refresh, refresh.

For some unfortunate souls, Teams sadly still worked. Others were forced to pivot to alternate forms of communication.

“Having meetings on WhatsApp now instead,” one Redditor wrote.

“My boss pointed out the program that has our training on still works,” someone else posted.

Still more turned to other screens for entertainment: “Feet up on the sofa, coffee in hand and playing a bit of xbox, wonderful start to the day,” another said. “Hopefully outlook is down for the remainder of the day.”

But the outage also brought a nostalgia not seen since the 1900s.

“It’s actually been quite fun in the office," another Redditor wrote. "It feels like a bit of a social event — everyone is chatting, we’ve ordered breakfast in, planning a pub visit this afternoon if it continues. Is this what the 90s felt like?”

But for many of us, the Internet Age is all-consuming. Even if our ears got a break for a few hours from the constant dings and pings of notifications, our fingers remained ready to reply-all at a moment's notice.

Refresh, refresh, refresh.

The Associated Press uses several Microsoft 365 services, including Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive. The outage gave Dazio some peace and quiet to write this report.

AP journalist Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

A person walks by a Microsoft logo and sign outside the Microsoft Visitor Center at the company's headquarters Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)