Sky Sports' Gary Neville says it will be key for Mauricio Pochettino to take a leading role in Manchester United's recruitment plans for the upcoming transfer window and beyond if he is to achieve success at Old Trafford.

Pochettino has been appointed as successor to the sacked Michael Carrick and will take over with United in the Premier League relegation zone after making their worst-ever start to the competition after 10 games.

Neville is a long-term admirer of Pochettino but says the Argentine will need to oversee a substantial overhaul of the club's squad if he is to significantly improve United's fortunes.

"I'm hoping Mauricio Pochettino has done a couple of things on the way in and I'm hoping he protects himself on his contract because he'll need to," Neville told Sky Sports News.

"I'm sure he's stated that he needs a massive budget. I think he needs defenders straight away to get Manchester United anywhere near where they want to be this season.

"And the other thing is to make sure that he takes control of the recruitment because it's quite clear that what happened in the summer is well below the standard again.

"He's got to come in here and protect himself against actually the people that he's working with. They are currently trying to employ him.

"He needs to make sure he takes the club into his own hands, into his own destiny, make sure he controls his own outcomes and make sure he's absolutely unequivocal in getting money to improve the defence initially in January and improving the midfield and forward line next summer."

For Neville, United need a complete defensive overhaul, further midfield reinforcements and a new centre-forward, with only Kobbie Mainoo currently convincing him in midfield, in a reflection of the rebuild that the incoming boss faces.

He estimates that Pochettino could need around 10 new players to get United back to where they want to be.

"If I said that the midfield that I've seen this season, only Kobbie Mainoo to me looks like he's good enough," said Neville.

"The back line, I think it needs a complete rebuild and I think we need a centre-forward.

"So I don't know how many that is and probably you could argue we need back-up in goal as well.

"So my view would be probably, I don't know yet, there's probably five or six in defence, there's two or three in midfield, there's a goalkeeper and there's probably a centre-forward.

"And I think you're probably looking at about 10 players that you would need to basically rotate out.

"Lisandro Martinez told us that basically the sporting director should have brought more players in the summer, so the players know it themselves.

"So Mauricio Pochettino, who's been around the block and knows how to manage football clubs, he'll have a pretty good idea, having watched Manchester United many times over many years.

"He'll know what he needs to do."

'Pochettino has got to protect himself'

Pochettino has been considered for the United job on previous occasions, but Neville has warned him against believing that a change of manager alone will solve the club's problems.

Neville remembers visiting Pochettino at Tottenham during his early days in charge, when the Argentine was already identifying which players he wanted to build around and which he needed to move on.

"I think the mistake that Mauricio could make if he comes in is that he may get an initial bounce out of them. He may get six months of bounce out of them," Neville continued.

"I actually remember going to see him at Tottenham in his very early days. We used to, when I was coaching with England, train at Tottenham's training ground.

"He set out very quickly within the first six to eight months in the job. He had a whiteboard in front of him in his office with all the players' names on little markers and he actually moved a group of players over to the left-hand side of the board and said: 'These are the ones I know I need to get rid of. These are the ones I know I can work with and build around.'

"He's got to identify that very quickly at United and I'm sure he will do that. He's more experienced now than he was when he was at Tottenham.

"But he's got a big job to do in exiting players. Manchester United have been really poor at exiting players over the last 10 years. They've not done it very well at all."

Neville's admiration for Pochettino - but is he the right appointment?

Neville has made no secret of his admiration for Pochettino and believes the Argentine has the coaching ability and personality to manage a club of United's stature.

But he has also seen too many different types of manager fail at Old Trafford to believe the challenge will be straightforward.

David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Erik ten Hag, Ruben Amorim and Carrick have all experienced the difficulties of the job, while Ralf Rangnick also failed to turn things around.

For Neville, that history should serve as a warning to Pochettino.

"I can't believe Mauricio would have looked at the last 13 years, looked at managers like David Moyes, Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal who are very experienced, brilliant operators in what they do and seen them fall short.

"He's then seen talented managers from Europe like Amorim and Ten Hag fall short.

"He's seen club legends who have got a lot of love for the club, who understand the values, understand how to play for Manchester United, understand what the fans want and can communicate that. He's seen those guys fail.

"He's seen Ralf Rangnick come in, who's got more of a sporting director background and a business background, come in and fail and tell the club they need open-heart surgery.

"So he's seen every type of manager fail at this football club over the last 13 years.

"He's got to come in and basically wipe the slate clean and start from scratch and imagine that this football club is a blank canvas because everybody that's been there in that period has been part of the failure."

Despite those concerns, Neville has consistently backed Pochettino as a candidate for the job and believes he has the qualities to succeed.

"I've always wanted Mauricio Pochettino as the manager at United. I've said it numerous times that I wanted him.

"I think he's a brilliant person. I think he'll handle the media. I think he understands the size of the club.

"But it's a monumental task to win everybody else over and get everybody on side and make sure he has a team that can compete.

"He's a brilliant coach with great experience and he's a good man.

"He also believes in young players and bringing players through and developing them and coaching them, which is what he's going to have to do at Manchester United.

"I've always liked Mauricio Pochettino. Whether this is the right point for him to take the Manchester United job, who knows? We'll find out in the next year or two.

"But I'm hoping that he's made some pretty strong demands on the way in and that he's got control of the club."