Mauricio Pochettino does not know how he would have reacted if the opportunity to resume his love affair with Tottenham had ever truly been on the cards. “It’s a good question,” the Argentinian says as he sits in the press room at Chelsea’s training ground thinking about facing his old club for the first time since they fired him four years ago. “But it’s difficult to answer.”
Would the connection have been the same second time around? They say you should never go back but for a while there was a sense that Pochettino had unfinished business with the side he led to the Champions League final in 2019. The reunion could have happened when Spurs sacked José Mourinho in 2021, only for Paris Saint-Germain to derail it. The fans would have loved it. There were more calls for Pochettino to return when Spurs parted company with Antonio Conte in March.
Yet the 51-year-old maintains there were never any talks with Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman. Instead Pochettino pitched up in west London, tasked with reviving Chelsea, but he does not see his decision to move to Stamford Bridge as a betrayal. The sense is that he does not think he should be booed when he brings his new side to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Monday night.
“I am going to accept what they will show,” Pochettino says of the reception he can expect from the Spurs fans. “I didn’t decide to leave. We parted ways because I was sacked. It’s not a criticism of the club … but we didn’t decide to leave. Maybe we would still be there.”
It is worth remembering that Pochettino was outstanding during his five and a half years at Spurs, turning them from lightweights into a regular top-four club. Even so, they would love to show their former manager that they have finally moved on from him. They have a new lease of life under Ange Postecoglou and their supporters have enjoyed poking fun at Pochettino’s early struggles at Chelsea, who remain outside the top 10 despite their massive spending.
Yet Pochettino is not bitter. In fact, going back might even bring him to tears. Even his mother calls him a llorona – a crybaby. “The chairman would tell you the same,” Pochettino says, recalling a trip to Argentina with his trusted assistant, Jesús Pérez, and Levy. “‘You are so emotional,’ he said to me. We spent one week in Argentina with the chairman. The moment we left the place I started to cry.
“Daniel approached Jesús and asked: ‘Why was Mauricio crying?’ It was because I am emotional; a llorona like my mother said. Very sensitive. I have become more so with time. I cry more and I become a better person every day.”
Beyond the energetic, exciting football and tactical expertise, so much of Pochettino’s appeal is down to his ability to build connections with players and colleagues. That should help him manage upwards at Chelsea, where there is no shortage of opinions in the boardroom, and it was interesting to hear that he remains on good terms with Levy after leaving Spurs.
“We are very respectful,” Pochettino says. “He sent a text when I signed here, wishing the best to me and to everyone. We need to be natural. Nearly six years working together. How many things happened in six years? Good and not so good! We cannot forget our relationship now.”
There were times when Pochettino found working for Levy frustrating. There were inevitable disagreements over recruitment but the memories are mostly positive. It means Pochettino can back Levy, who keeps hearing Spurs fans call for his resignation.
“He is involved in football for 20 years and understands the situation,” he says. “Daniel is really clever. It is amazing, the job he is doing for Tottenham. You see Tottenham 20 years ago and now, how it changed, how it moved on. You need to recognise his job.”
The criticism of Levy has not stopped Spurs from absorbing the sale of Harry Kane and making a brilliant start under Postecoglou. They are 14 points ahead of Chelsea, whose expensive but inexperienced squad remain infuriatingly inconsistent. The interesting thing, though, is that Pochettino made a similar start at Spurs in 2014. He took 14 points from his first 10 games; Chelsea have 12. It was only during the second half of his first year at Spurs that his ideas truly took hold.
But he thinks this job is tougher. There was more experience at Spurs, more time for the youngsters to develop, whereas Chelsea’s team is already packed with youth. “It is difficult to compare,” Pochettino says. “When we arrived [at Spurs] it was a year before that Modric and Bale went. They spent a lot of money. Then they started another project about young guys like Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Dele Alli, Son, Bentaleb and Ryan Mason. Here it is the beginning.
“With a young team it is tougher to perform. You put the pressure on the young players from the beginning. The difference was the experienced players were there [at Spurs] and then we decide to go and to move. But the young guys were working for four or five months to understand what we wanted and then we decided to play them. But this project is exciting. For sure Chelsea is going to get the results because performances are good.”
The results have to follow and Pochettino wants Chelsea to stand up to Spurs. “I hope it will be the game that can give us the possibility to grow quickly,” he says. “Sometimes it is one result, one performance, one goal, one thing that can push, that is the trigger to change things completely.”
