RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: I’m told control over transfers was key to Mauricio Pochettino taking Man United job. It seems they finally have a manager bullish enough to hold Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Jason Wilcox to account

It only happened once. But if you search for it, there is footage. The date was February 23, 2000 and the place was the old Wembley Stadium. England 0-0 Argentina, the kind of friendly best forgotten, except for a single line of trivia.

Of all the games played by Jason Wilcox and Mauricio Pochettino, this was the sole example of them sharing a pitch. Wilcox was given the full 90 at a point when Kevin Keegan was low on options for the left wing and Pochettino came on with 35 minutes on the clock and kicked a few people.

He was good at kicking people, Pochettino. He flattened Paul Scholes once, then he nudged over David Beckham and twice he got stuck into Emile Heskey. But Wilcox was in a safe zone on the other side of the field that night. While Pochettino indulged his hobby, Wilcox kept out of harm’s way.

We might ask at this juncture if either of them ever changed their spots. But it’s more interesting to ponder what comes next, now they have been pitched together again at Manchester United.

United needed a big bull to replace Michael Carrick and they have got one. Wilcox’s preference? Well, United’s director of hopeless football quite fancied Eddie Howe, according to the whispers, and Howe is far from a shrinking violet, but he’s not Pochettino. And Pochettino certainly isn’t Carrick.

Pochettino won’t drive to work for three days straight while knowing his race is run. And he won’t have the same patience for incompetence from those below or above.

With any luck, United knew this when they reached an agreement that was a decade in the making. If they did, it would demonstrate some self-awareness at last, because United have badly needed the right blend of bruiser and diplomat in that seat. 

They have cried out for someone who isn’t too nice, too loyal, too whiny or too undermined by their own shortcomings to have the kind of rucks that are needed for change. By that logic, United may have invited their own worst enemy to dinner, or their best chance of a solution.

There have been few managerial appointments in recent years as inherently fascinating at this one. That instinct is partly driven by the thought it has all arrived a touch late – when United favoured Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to replace Jose Mourinho, it was a sliding-door moment for all parties.

But there’s another way of viewing this and that comes from the opposite angle. Maybe this is the perfect time, based on the qualifications needed to operate within the modern version of United.

There is no doubt that Pochettino has lost some of his sheen since his masterful handling of Daniel Levy at Tottenham, but what did he gain? He managed the vastest collection of footballing egos at PSG, worked under a convoluted tier of meddlers in the madhouse of Chelsea and was confronted by presidential interference in his time with the US national team at the World Cup.

Two schools of thought can exist here. One is that he failed to tear up any trees in each of those assignments. But the other talks to the point we are making: United require a manager who can navigate their unique brand of chaos and the new guy knows the dance. 

Pochettino won’t ever thank Donald Trump for the Folarin Balogun fiasco in the summer, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe would have to work awfully hard to cause him a more uncomfortable press conference.

The scale of Pochettino’s challenge is obvious. In the micro, that means applying a playing style built on hard running to a squad that jogged its way to embarrassing statistics under Carrick. In the macro, it will be his challenge with Wilcox and a recruitment team that effectively cost Carrick his job.

Talking to one of Pochettino’s former colleagues on Friday, the expectation is that greater control over transfers will have been a key tenet of those negotiations with United. 

As predictable as that might sound, it was a huge bone of contention for him at Chelsea and United’s failures in this area are clear. Time will tell if any promises are honoured.

But Pochettino has got what he wanted and pursued. His desire for the post has never been disguised, which can be mapped as a trail of breadcrumbs from that bottle of red he once shared with Sir Alex Ferguson all the way up to carefully planted mentions of the club in gatherings with media. 

There were some acts of reassurance necessary for the final step, of course, and doubtless it will sting to leave the US – his farewell tears on Friday showed as much. But not enough to inspire a second thought.

To look back over Pochettino’s other stints in England, one main memory stands out from his time at Tottenham and I’ve cited in this space previously. 

It traces to September 2016, when Pochettino was on the rise and had a game approaching against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. In attempting to coax a decent line in the press conference, a few of us killed time before his arrival by digging up old footage of Pochettino’s Espanyol beating Barcelona, when he and Guardiola were on opposing sides.

Within the clip was an unexpected gem, because Pochettino murdered the Brazilian Ronaldo in a challenge. He took the ball, sure, but demolished the man, too, and his boot ended up shoulder-high. We were watching this when Pochettino wandered over and requested a replay – when it was shown, he laughed maniacally.

As a player, he always saw the value in a good reducer. And it’s a trait that might well be needed at United. If Wilcox and the other cronies upstairs don’t up their game, they might find that Carrington offers fewer hiding places than the old Wembley.

Was Tom Brady ever in the Blues’ building?  

Tom Brady has left Birmingham, but was he ever really there? Across three years, he attended only four games.

The club is on a steep upward trajectory and there is no doubt that the Brady association helped on their commercial side. 

But I recall speaking to one Blues shareholder a couple of seasons back, and after attempting to establish some tangible detail about their star investor’s contribution, there was a period of silence. When I asked how often Brady might dial into meetings, there was laughter. 

In this era of celebrity ownership of our football clubs, it’s easy to get blinded by a famous name. And easier still to get drawn in by suggestions of expertise that they have carried over from a different space. 

But in the vast majority of cases, they are little more than mascots without the costume. 

Great delivery from Cummins – but it’s not over yet

Pat Cummins stood for 70 minutes on Thursday and answered questions about Sandpapergate. 

The Australia captain refused to budge, both from the microphone and his position that Usman Khawaja was incorrect in his claim that the entire team was in on the plot to cheat against South Africa in 2018. 

It’s hard to know what was more impressive – Cummins’ commitment to answering every question, or his delusion in believing that it would be the last time he discusses it.