Mauricio Pochettino has revealed his emotional commitment to returning to manage Tottenham Hotspur and his dream of finally winning a trophy there.
Pochettino managed Tottenham from 2014 to 2019, their best spell in the modern era, during which they came agonisingly close to glory. And Pochettino, currently coach of the United States men’s national team, still hopes to take that final step.
“In the bottom of my heart I still feel the same,” Pochettino said. “I would like one day to come back. Not because of my ego. It is because my feeling is that I would like one day to win with Tottenham. We were so close, and it was so painful.”
Tottenham sacked Pochettino in November 2019. Since then, they have had four permanent managers, three caretaker spells, have played in one final (of the 2021 League Cup) and finished in the top four just once. They are currently 14th in the Premier League, having lost more than half their league games this season for the first time since 1934-35.
Pochettino still looks back at his time at Spurs with pride. He led them to a League Cup final, a Champions League final, second place in the Premier League (with 86 points), two third-placed finishes and two FA Cup semi-finals. All of that was achieved on a limited budget, with Spurs not signing a single player from January 2018 to summer 2019. With hindsight, it looks like an even better era than it felt at the time.
“With Chelsea, it was one year, very productive,” Pochettino said. “But we spent nearly five and a half years there (at Tottenham). And we not only achieved being in the Champions League, or fighting for four years to be one of the contenders for the Premier League, when before the club was fighting for different things. We were also involved in improving the facilities, training ground, stadium. Not signing a player for 18 months because the focus was on other things. I was involved in that, and I agreed with that.”
Pochettino was replaced by Jose Mourinho less than six months after managing Tottenham in the Champions League final, having struggled to re-energise the players after the disappointment of Madrid. Pochettino accepts that he could have handled that time better.
“The problem was this type of journey creates a lot of friction for different reasons,” he said. “Also, I made mistakes. But the good thing is when you are clever you learn from your mistakes. It’s like when a relationship finishes. I feel empty. I feel so disappointed. With everyone but also with myself because I didn’t manage well. And when that happens it’s part of my responsibility.
“I think now Tottenham is a club with an expectation to win because if you see the facilities — training ground or stadium — now you can see it is about winning trophies. That is why I would like one day to come back.”
Tottenham did speak to Pochettino in May 2021, just 18 months after his dismissal, about a return to N17. But he was under contract at Paris Saint-Germain and the French club would not countenance his departure. At the end of the 2022-23 season, Spurs fans supported a Pochettino return, singing his name at games, but he went to Chelsea and Tottenham appointed Ange Postecoglou instead. But the idea of him coming back has never gone away.
“But if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen,” Pochettino said. “With all the possibilities again to build something special, that is my feeling and it didn’t change. It’s six years since we left and it’s always going to be a special club for me.”
(Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
