Plan of attack: Mauricio Pochettino's immediate focus includes house hunting, relationship building

First up, as Batson says, is a bit of personal business. If Pochettino is going to coach in the U.S., he'll need a place to live.

The coach and U.S. Soccer leadership will be on the case, sorting out his living arrangements. The barbecue Batson mentioned - some Argentinian asado, perhaps? - will be nice, but conducting the home search is a priority.

Atlanta will be Pochettino's home base. U.S. Soccer is in the process of relocating from Chicago down to Atlanta, with their new base being headlined by a new state-of-the-art training center. The Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center will officially open in 2026, giving U.S. Soccer a new center of operations.

"I think the idea is to live here in the USA. That is the idea," Pochettino said. "But of course, for different reasons, I will be between Europe and the USA."

While based stateside, there will surely be trips to England, France, Germany and Italy on the agenda in the very near future.

The most important thing Pochettino will do over the next month is build relationships. He's the newcomer, and he'll need to introduce himself to everyone from the ground up.

"Not only is he a great coach, but he's what I call a connector of people," said U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker, who previously worked with the coach at Southampton. "He's somebody that can build outstanding relationships, not just with the players who are starting but the players who are not in the team, the staff across the club, somebody that might work in the ticket office or somebody that might work within the administration team.

"I remember him coming to everybody's office and he would pretty much physically hug everybody in the club. He created this unbelievable spirit, and that's something that hasn't left him."

Pochettino need to bring that to the forefront as he introduces himself to team leaders. Christian Pulisic took aim at the USMNT's players in the wake of back-to-back disappointing performances in recent friendlies, saying that the team lacked a winning mentality. Matt Turner said the Argentine need to "steady the ship" - one that has been way too wobbly in 2024.

Over the next few weeks, Pochettino will need to sit down with players and implement ground rules, introducing them to the concepts and expectations they'll face when they do arrive for camp.

It remains to be seen when and where Pochettino will pop up in Europe over the next few months, but he's already met with leadership in the U.S. A spokesperson confirmed to GOAL that Pochettino met with MLS commissioner Don Garber, LAFC's co-managing owner Larry Berg, Philadelphia Union chairman and principal owner Jay Sugarman and vice chairman and alternate governor Richard Leibovitch, in New York on Friday. And he left all in the room impressed with his plans for the national team.

"I think we need to create links with the organization and the team," Pochettino said. "I think I'm required to be there with the players, with the staff, with the coaching staff, working around the world, not only here with MLS.

"That is the plan: to try to build a very good relationship with all the clubs. Clubs, they need to feel our support. Players need to feel that we care for them. It's not OK if, after one month, you go and then you don't feel that relationship. I feel it's important to create a better relationship with the players. They need to feel that."

Pochettino's staff is already largely assembled. He's set to be joined by longtime assistants Jesus Perez and Miguel D'Agostino, as well as goalkeeper coach Toni Jimenez. He's worked with each of them for years.

"If there's one thing I know in my life, I think it's that I have to have people that have the qualifications and then people that challenge me," Pochettino said. "We work because I think the personalities and the quality that they have fit for me as a coach. We've created a very good relationship. Maybe we can say that we are friends, but in between, we are professionals and always are going to be.

"People say you need to always bring people from outside, but I think that it's priceless to have people that work with you and every day want to challenge you and want to improve and be better. I think, for me, that is the most important thing."

A spokesman told GOALthat Pochettino will head to Chicago later this month to meet with the current USMNT staff, which was fronted by interim coach Mikey Varas during the September window. The new coach could also expand his staff in the future to include someone with more familiarity with American soccer.

"We are flexible, and we are always hoping to add people because we know that football is changing," Pochettino said. "We need people, qualified people, working next to us to provide us with information to be better, to help the players to perform."

There is another aspect of this worth considering: the off-field portion. By making the decision to take over the USMNT, Pochettino wasn't just dictating life for him or his trusted assistants.

Pochettino's sons are both grown. Sebastiano Pochettino was recently Chelsea's fitness coach and sports scientist. Maurizio Pochettino is a professional player, having most recently featured for Primera Federación club Gimnastic in Spain. Pochettino's wife Karina is also ready to begin this new chapter (and presumably so is his Rhodesian Ridgeback named Sansa, who even has her own Instagram page).

The coach offered a phrase he learned back in England - "over the moon" - to describe his family's reaction. Everyone in the Pochettino family seemingly is excited about the opportunity.

"I am happy," he said. "I am motivated and showing passion. My family has seen me in the last few weeks or months with the fire in my eyes. That is the most important thing: how you feel. I feel so, so happy, because I see my family are also so excited for this challenge. They are part of it because they support me."

That's a lot to accomplish in a short amount of time. Pochettino has to take care of himself and his family, integrating into his new country. He now has to meet the players, develop relationship and formulate a plan to get this tea back on track. The process, in general, started back in Barcelona during his meetings with U.S. Soccer, and it'll take him through to cities all over the U.S. and Europe.

Pochettino plans to hit the ground running.

And he has to.

There's less than two years until the World Cup, which is the moment that will offer a referendum on this hiring. And not coincidentally, Pochettino signed a two-year contract with an annual salary of $6 million, according to ESPN, a record for U.S. Soccer. There's no mystery regarding why Pochettino was brought in. He's here to make sure that this team can compete in 2026 in ways they couldn't in 2024.

Baston underscored the focus on the World Cup, saying Pochettino's contract "is through the World Cup. As part of this, we spend a lot of time talking about the long-term ambitions of U.S. Soccer and one of the things that attracted him to this role was the opportunity to have a broader impact, but he also knows we've got to perform in the World Cup."

He added, "We want to use this opportunity to set ourselves up for success, obviously, for 2026 but also to have a long-term relationship that can conceivably continue beyond in whatever role is the right one."

Pochettino is already staring down 2026. It'll be here before you know it. There are just 10 international windows between now and then, which will dwindle to eight by the end of 2024. The new coach has grand ambitions, and he'll get started immediately. After an extended wait, Pochettino is officially on the job.

"I think everyone thinks that there is no time to prepare and to arrive in our condition to the World Cup," he began. "What I want to tell you that I am in the opposite side. I believe that there is time enough. I don't want to make an excuse and don't want to create an excuse for the player to say, 'Well, yeah, we don't have time to buy into the new idea, the new philosophy, the new football'.

"I think the players are so intelligent and so talented, and they can, I think, play in a different way. For sure, I think we have time. We have time, and we need to really believe in seeing big things. We need to believe that we can win. We need to believe that we can win the World Cup."