Manchester United are expected to carry out a second and final round of interviews before appointing their new manager although Erik ten Hag has now emerged as the clear favourite.

United have spoken to ten Hag and Mauricio Pochettino and at least one other candidate as they search for the permanent successor to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who was sacked last November with interim Ralf Rangnick taking over.

That other candidate is not believed to be Luis Enrique who would feel it is impossible for him to leave as the coach of the Spain national team before the World Cup this November. Neither is it understood to be Julen Lopetegui who has stated he will remain as the coach of Sevilla.

United have shown interest in Thomas Tuchel, as have Real Madrid and several other clubs, but he is expected to stay at Chelsea although his future clearly depends on who the new owners will be and what they want to do with the club. Ether way United will not wait and it appears to be a clear shoot-out between ten Hag and Pochettino as to who takes over this summer.

The fact that United are planning another round of interviews clearly suggests that they have not made a final decision on who they want as their next manager.

Paris Saint-Germain are prepared to let Pochettino go, following another Champions League failure by the French giants, despite the Argentinian having one more year left on his contract after this season. The former Tottenham Hotspur manager and his staff are due up to €20m compensation should he be sacked, as is expected regardless of whether he is offered another job.

PSG will not expect a payment and will not stand in his way should he accept another job and neither are they insistent that Pochettino asks for permission before speaking to another club.

They are hopeful he will agree a deal and still hope that Zinedine Zidane will become their new head coach although he may be holding out for the French national team job once Didier Deschamps leaves after the World Cup later this year.

Ajax did grant permission before United interviewed ten Hag and compensation is not believed to be an issue. However while the discussions went well there is concern among the Dutch coach’s camp that there are issues from within United as to whether he has experience being in charge of a big club.

Although the 52-year-old has been extremely successful at Ajax he has only been a head coach in the Netherlands having previously worked at Utrecht and Go Ahead Eagles. He did have a spell in Germany but that was only in charge of Bayern Munich’s second team.

Ten Hag has also only ever worked in a particular environment where he has had the support of a sporting director and United are still to finalise the structure of their football department.

United are concerned about ten Hag’s perceived lack of experience although it has been pointed out to them that after appointing the likes of Louis Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho they have previously gone for the ‘big-name’ manager and it has not worked.

At the same time it is not as if ten Hag is working for a small club or there is not pressure, given the expectation, at coaching for a club with the stature of Ajax. There was also irritation within ten Hag’s camp at suggestions that he had taken English lessons because his command of the language was not good enough and that this had held him back from being appointed as Tottenham coach last summer.