Gary Neville has gone against the grain by throwing his weight behind Mauricio Pochettino to become the next permanent Manchester United manager.
The Old Trafford legend has been vocal on social media of late as his former club intensify their efforts to find the successor for Ralf Rangnick. Pochettino has been linked with the United job throughout the season, even before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked in November, and he remains a leading candidate.
However, the Argentine's chances of landing the role have been damaged in recent weeks after he led Paris Saint-Germain to a disastrous defeat by Real Madrid in the Champions League and a dire loss at Monaco on Sunday. As Pochettino's hand has grown weaker, Erik ten Hag has emerged as the frontrunner to assume the Red Devils post ahead of next season.
The Ajax boss was interviewed by United's football director John Murtough and technical director Darren Fletcher on Monday to position himself as the clear favourite to take the reins from Rangnick. But, while Ten Hag is leading the race, debate continues to rage on social media about whether he is the better fit for the job compared to Pochettino, who has Premier League experience thanks to his impressive stint with Tottenham.
Keen to learn the consensus among the fanbase, Neville took to Twitter to post a poll pitting the two managers against one another. The results were overwhelming with Ten Hag scooping over 80 per cent of almost 200,000 votes as of Wednesday afternoon. Accompanying his tweet, the former England defender wrote: "Reports Ten Hag has been interviewed this week. If formal interviews have started and with it being such a public process I would expect a new manager announcement within a week or so."
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In a follow-up tweet, Neville declared he would pick Pochettino over Ten Hag for the United hot seat, although he acknowledged the latter is "the massive favourite of United fans to take the club forward". Supporters in the Ten Hag camp were keen to question why the 47-year-old prefers Pochettino, with one asking: "Have you watched PSG?" In response, Neville was keen to point out Thomas Tuchel - Chelsea 's Champions League-winning manager - lost against United while PSG manager in 2019.
He hit back: "Yes! I also watched Tuchel's PSG go out against us. He's done ok." Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard in January last year and within a matter of months the Blues were crowned champions of Europe for the second time in their history. Pochettino will hope for similar success if he moves to United having left PSG but Ten Hag, Luis Enrique and Julen Lopetegui continue to provide stern competition.
