Ernesto Valverde is on a shortlist of candidates to become Manchester United’s interim manager if they cannot prise Mauricio Pochettino away from Paris Saint-Germain.

Sportsmail revealed that Pochettino is ready to move to Old Trafford immediately as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s replacement, but it’s still unclear how much United want the Argentine and how hard PSG would fight to keep him.

United are still working to a plan of installing a temporary boss to take over the reins from caretaker Michael Carrick before making a permanent appointment at the end of the season. 

Manchester United have begun pursuing Ernesto Valverde for their vacant managers job 

The club have a shortlist of five candidates for the interim job and it emerged yesterday (tues) that former Barcelona coach Valverde is one of the names under consideration.

Valverde is currently out of work after leaving Barca in January 2020 and the 57-year-old Spaniard has held talks with United’s football director John Murtough.

Valverde has the advantage of having worked at one of the world’s top clubs, but has no Premier League experience despite expressing an interest in coaching in England.

The only time he has worked outside of Spain was two stints at Olimpiacos, and he got the Barcelona job after impressing in the second of two spells at Athletic Bilbao. 

It’s believed that Valverde would only be an option for the interim role, and United have other candidates for the summer including Pochettino, Leicester’s Brendan Rodgers and Ajax coach Erik ten Hag.

Zinedine Zidane has also been linked but it’s understood that he is reluctant to move to Old Trafford and is a more likely replacement for Pochettino at PSG.

It remains to be seen if Pochettino’s potential availability could change United’s thinking regarding an interim appointment, but news of the Valverde talks would indicate that they are at the very least keeping their options open.