After such a long and drawn-out ending, where Manchester United so hesitated on the decision to sack Jose Mourinho, the next choice is clear and obvious.Mauricio Pochettino is the man that executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward wants above anyone else.
The club know that the Tottenham Hotspur manager is impossible to get mid-season so will go for a stand-in appointment, expected to be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but that is not the only obstacle.
Because whether Pochettino should even go to United is now far from the obvious choice. It has got to the point where it is fair to ask the question. Should he swap a position at an upwardly mobile club, for one that now just seems utterly directionless – and, in short, a basket case?
For United’s part, one of the reasons that Mourinho was sacked was because he was against the appointment of a director of football, because they do now have some kind of plan. They want that direction it.
The appointment of a manager as talented as Pochettino would only hasten it.
There is a lot of talk that United need a change of squad as much as manager, but that is to overlook the reality that players can very quickly look very different under different coaches.
Look at the case of someone from Pochettino’s current squad. It was coincidentally a bad defeat away to Liverpool, in April 2014, that saw Jan Vertonghen dismissed as something of a joke. Belgian sources say his then manager Tim Sherwood even felt the defender had a bad attitude, just like what is said of so many United players now.
No one is saying that about Vertonghen now. That was the effect of Pochettino, and the player’s response to him.
That is what he is capable of.
It is just that there is still much work to do all around United, in what would really be going to start of something, when it feels like there is still so much unfinished business at Tottenham.
In a feat that is hugely impressive and actually deserves even more credit than it has got, the Argentine has already smashed the idea that he has hit a ceiling there, as seemed the case when they didn’t sign anyone in the summer.
Pochettino has instead persisted, getting them so much higher up the table than expected, and getting them through to the Champions League last 16 when everyone expected them to get eliminated.
It also seems the worst is over in a few ways, with the club set to move into a new stadium in the next few months.
There is a sense of optimism and possibility at the place.
There is only a sense of puzzlement at United, and frustration.
There is also, however, a lot of money.