COULD SPURS REALLY GET POCH BACK?
He’s already fallen out with PSG chiefs and still has roots in London…
ON the Paris SaintGermain website yesterday there was an interview with coach Mauricio Pochettino in which he talked about his short time at the club. ‘We will do big things in the future,’ promised the headline.
As often in football, things are not as simple as that.
PSG are a complicated and demanding football club and few ask more of their coach than sporting director Leonardo.
Pochettino arrived with a brief to win the domestic league and have a reasonable tilt at the Champions League. Neither have happened and it is understood he and Leonardo have already clashed brutally. When that happens in Paris, it is usually the coach who loses out.
At Tottenham, all this has not gone unnoticed. Without a manager since Jose Mourinho’s sacking in April, talk of a return for his predecessor Pochettino is not being altogether dismissed.
Discussions, at least internally, about trying to lure Pochettino back to north London have taken place with director of technical performance Steve Hitchen, in particular, understood to be banging the Argentine’s drum.
It would be a bold move by chairman Daniel Levy, a gamble to even try it. The two men parted on pretty poor terms when Pochettino left in November 2019. His relationship with some members of the squad was also damaged.
But Tottenham are a club in need. Brighton boss Graham Potter and Belgium coach Roberto Martinez continue to be talked about. Pochettino, who took the club to the Champions League final in 2019, would be a significant upgrade.
Pochettino has in the past talked about a desire to ‘finish what we didn’t finish’ at Tottenham. Even so, for Levy to attempt to bring him home now would be extraordinary especially given that any evidence of a genuine rift at PSG would be seized upon by other European giants.
Real Madrid are without a coach after Zinedine Zidane’s departure. Spanish news outlets were full of talk of Pochettino within minutes of the news. In Italy, Antonio Conte has left Inter Milan.
Pochettino still has roots in London. His family have remained there and his son Maurizio is on the books at Watford. He felt when he left Tottenham that the break had come far too early.
Spurs’ interest in Pochettino is genuine. But is it realistic? Logic tells you it isn’t. Why would he leave a club that provides him with an almost cast-iron guarantee of a trophy every season? What would it say about him if he did? Why would he want to leave behind Neymar and Kylian Mbappe?
But his lack of control on the overall footballing operation at PSG is known to grate on him, just as it did on Thomas Tuchel — now anticipating a Champions League final with Chelsea — before him.
But is the alternative really that more appealing? His previous experience of working with Levy wore him down in the end.
PSG were adamant yesterday that they did not want to lose a manager they only appointed in January. That leaves Pochettino facing the option of resigning if he truly wants a Tottenham return.
In his first job at one of European football’s super clubs, walking away after less than six months wouldn’t be the best look.
Walking away for Spurs, a club in need of yet another rebuild, appears illogical for one of the most intelligent minds in football.