Manchester United are turning to a familiar former foe as their next manager, with Mauricio Pochettino replacing Michael Carrick in the hotseat.

It’s been a long time coming. Pochettino has been linked with the United job for years, but it’s never materialised. Until now.

Pochettino has been around in the Premier League long enough that he’s even managed a game against Sir Alex Ferguson, the legend that United have found it so hard to replace since his retirement 13 years ago.

It was in fact just Pochettino’s second game in charge of Southampton after being appointed in January 2013. His first, ironically, had been against an Everton side managed by Ferguson’s first successor, David Moyes.

After drawing with Everton, Pochettino suffered his first defeat at Old Trafford, despite Jay Rodriguez putting the visitors ahead within three minutes.

A brace from Wayne Rooney later in the first half turned it around to give United a 2-1 win.

Now, Pochettino is finally ready to get to work as the new United manager. But what has happened to the United players that were his opponents on his first visit to Old Trafford?

This is the starting XI Ferguson picked for his only ever clash with Pochettino and where they are now.

David de Gea

De Gea was midway through his second season with United at the time of Pochettino’s visit with Southampton. The first season hadn’t been plain sailing for the Spanish keeper, but he ultimately stood the test of time.

After leaving United in 2023 and spending a season as a free agent, De Gea joined Fiorentina in 2024, where he’s still playing now at the age of 36.

De Gea became Fiorentina’s captain last December. Just like current United keeper Senne Lammens, he hasn’t kept a clean sheet in any of his league games this season.

Like De Gea, Jones was in his second season at Old Trafford in 2012-13. He also stuck around until 2023, but his involvement in the later years of that spell was much more limited.

What might have been without injuries? We’ll never know. He had to retire at a relatively young age – he was only 30 when he played his last game – before transitioning into coaching.

Currently, Jones is a first-team coach with Sheffield United, forming part of Chris Wilder’s backroom staff. He’s previously coached in the Man Utd academy and with Blackburn Rovers.

Vidic has been retired for 10 years now, finishing his career with 18 months at Inter after all his United exploits.

He has had his UEFA Pro Licence coaching badge since 2018, but is yet to become a manager. He’s instead spent time investing in real estate and also enrolled on a UEFA course five years ago about executive management off the pitch.

Smalling signed for Porto in September on a free transfer after two years in Saudi Arabia. Love that for him, to be fair.

He had his highs and lows with United before becoming a force to be reckoned with in his career twilight with Roma.

Soon turning 37, Smalling made his Porto debut in a Portuguese cup match in October, but hasn’t played in the league yet.

He loves this game.

Evra retired in 2019, a year after a short stint with West Ham. He’d last played for Man Utd in 2014 but went on to do some coaching with their academy while working through his badges.

He gets up to all sorts these days as an investor and public speaker. For example, he helped co-found the PLAYER app, which aims to connect people in football.

Anderson’s career ended in 2020, five years after he left United. However, he’s since turned out for United’s Legends team on the odd occasion.

Well this is awkward…

The man making way for Pochettino, Carrick got his marching orders after United went into the international break in the relegation zone.

But the table across his full reign doesn’t look nearly as bad.

We’ve got a lot of time for Welbeck. Every time you think he’s down and out in his career, he bounces back.

The attacker left United in 2014 to join Arsenal, where he spent five years before joining Watford.

The 35-year-old has come off the bench seven times in the league for Chelsea, as well as starting once, and scored three from three in the EFL Cup.

Recently crowned Pundit of the Year at the Broadcast Sport Awards – not just for saying what we all thought about the World Cup final’s half-time show – Rooney seems to be finding his calling after some unsuccessful stints as a manager.

And now he’s getting ready to go into the jungle.

Bet you didn’t know this guy’s still playing.

It never quite worked out for Kagawa at Old Trafford and so he retraced his steps back to Borussia Dortmund after just two years in England.

Spells with Besiktas, Real Zaragoza, PAOK and Sint-Truiden followed before he went back to Japan with Cerezo Osaka in 2023.

Kagawa originally started his career there before coming to Europe with Dortmund. Now 37, he has 12 J1 League appearances to his name this season.

Robin van Persie

Another former United player to have tested himself as a manager, Van Persie was in charge of Feyenoord until the summer.

He led them to second place in the Eredivisie last season, which was his first full campaign in charge.

He’s also previously managed Heerenveen, but has been doing some ambassadorial work while waiting for his next managerial role.

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