Manchester United made it official on Friday: Mauricio Pochettino is their new head coach on a two-and-a-half-year deal. But the club's own statement says he starts work on Nov. 18, after he and his staff finish their duties with the U.S. men's national team. That leaves the Argentine with three training days at Carrington before his first game, which is at Anfield.

Two Haiti games first

Pochettino will still be on the U.S. bench for both legs of the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal against Haiti. The first leg is Saturday in Miami at 4:30 p.m. ET, and the second is Tuesday, Nov. 17, in Cincinnati at 7 p.m. ET. That second leg will be his last game in charge of the USMNT.

He then flies to Manchester on Wednesday to meet his new bosses, takes his first session with the players on Thursday, Nov. 19, and leads United at Liverpool on Sunday, Nov. 22, at 11:30 a.m. ET. In practice that means Thursday, Friday and Saturday on the grass, with a group that will also be coming back from international duty in pieces.

A cheaper exit than reported

The Guardian reported that it will cost United £7 million in compensation to bring Pochettino out of his U.S. Soccer contract. That is below the roughly $10 million exit clause reported earlier in the week, and it is a modest fee for a coach the club had been linked with since 2016.

United dismissed Michael Carrick and his backroom staff on Thursday, after the club's worst start to a season in four decades. Pochettino is expected to bring his long-time assistants Jesús Pérez and Miguel D'Agostino, as well as goalkeeping coach Toni Jiménez.

His goodbye to U.S. Soccer

Pochettino released a farewell statement on Friday. "The opportunity to represent the USA crest was one of the greatest honours of my career," he said. "We are so grateful to the players for their commitment, to the fans for their belief, and to the federation for always supporting our staff and creating the opportunities to impact the culture of soccer in this great country."

He thanked U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone, JT Batson and Dan Helfrich by name, and added that "there is tremendous talent in the US player pool from the youth teams through to the senior team."

For U.S. fans, the next five days are an odd farewell tour: a coach who already belongs to another club still has a quarterfinal to win. For United, the clock is even tighter, because the first thing Pochettino has to fix gets tested in front of the Kop.