Pochettino buzz was always going to be a World Cup subplot. It’s on him to prove it won’t matter.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — News on Thursday that U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino met with AC Milan about its manager vacancy a week before the start of World Cup training camp is exactly what U.S. Soccer signed up for when it hired a big-name coach to a short-term contract that expires immediately after the World Cup.

It is also certainly not what U.S. Soccer hoped for. Surely, the federation wanted to avoid this kind of news right before a home World Cup, even if this kind of discourse for a manager with stature comes with the territory.

But two things can be true. Just like it can be true that meeting with Milan does not mean Pochettino isn’t focused and committed for this summer and that taking that meeting is an ill-timed and undesired distraction ahead of the tournament.

Pochettino and U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson are right to point out that these types of conversations are completely normal in professional soccer. And, as Batson claimed Thursday, if you hire high-level people, they are going to be in demand and recruited by outside entities.

So in terms of expectations, U.S. Soccer leadership knew it would get this kind of speculation when it hired Pochettino to coach the U.S. in a once-in-a-generation home World Cup. And it’s not new compared to the last 21 months in which Pochettino has been in charge. He has been linked with jobs at Manchester United, Tottenham and Real Madrid at different times during his short tenure. Just go ahead and AC Milan to the list.

Pochettino indicated that his experience as a manager at so many different clubs, many of those years in high demand, has more than prepared him to deal with interest from one job while staying locked in on another. And the fact that Pochettino’s contract is so close to expiring was only going to add to this type of rumor mill — and to legitimate interest and recruitment.

It’s why players like Tyler Adams shrugged at the news on Thursday. This is part of the sport.

“Our focus has to be here on the World Cup. As [with] any manager or player — like, there’s [players] in contract situations right now that have to figure out what to do, either before the World Cup, after the World Cup. It’s gonna be the same deal with coaches,” Adams said. “He’s fully present with us every single day, finding ways to make us better, focusing on the trainings, just as we are.”

That doesn’t mean it’s not a headache.

Pochettino has over the last two years urged his players to have full commitment to the national team. He has talked multiple times about how players in powerhouse countries like his native Argentina treasure each call-up. How they are held to that standard by the culture in the country and the pressures associated with it, from media, fans and peers.

Infecting this national team program with that mentality, one where a trip to the World Cup isn’t assured, but rather earned, may be his most important accomplishment as the U.S. coach — as long as the federation carries that standard forward. He manufactured competition in the program and forced some of its biggest stars to truly wonder if they had played well enough to earn a call-up. The team is better for it.

But by the same measure, there’s no way that Pochettino meeting with AC Milan would be well received in Argentina if he managed his home country. Julen Lopetegui was fired by Spain days before the 2018 World Cup because he agreed to a job with Real Madrid for after the tournament. The demands and pressures around those jobs are enormous, as is the scrutiny. It’s fair that some U.S. fans might question whether Pochettino is distracted.

It’s up to him to back up his words and prove to them he’s focused on the job at hand. There’s plenty of reason to believe that he is.

Pochettino doesn’t want to fall flat coaching in his first World Cup. His approach to the job has been a challenging one. He did not take the easy road with this team. This summer is meant to be the payoff.

It felt poetic that while Batson stood in front of a gaggle of reporters at the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center to assure people that his coach was “100 percent” committed to the job ahead of this summer’s tournament, Pochettino, wearing a blue training kit and blue hat, animatedly jumped and shouted at his players during a drill.

“Go, go, go, go, go!” he shouted.

He was full bore in the training session. And he was emphatic in his answers with reporters, even if at times he was evasive about the talks with AC Milan. The World Cup, he insisted, was his top priority.

“If I don’t have commitment, what am I doing here? If I have the possibility to (go to) another club?” he said. “It is disrespectful (from my perspective). Because I am here. I am here. I am not going to go away tomorrow. If another club came and said, ‘We want you, but you have to start tomorrow.’ I say, ‘Sorry, I committed with the national team.’ Whether it’s the best club in the world. They can give me all the promises. I am not going to change.”

Maybe he stays — he said Batson broached the topic of an extension this past week. More likely, he doesn’t. In the end, Pochettino’s legacy will hinge on what the team does this summer. That’s the job U.S. Soccer hired him for. That’s why the contract was structured the way it was.

Win big games and make a run during the World Cup, and none of Thursday’s noise matters.