Mauricio Pochettino is not the only one returning to Tottenham on Monday night.
Noni Madueke failed the make the grade at Spurs under Pochettino and, as he goes back to his old club, now faces a familiar struggle at Chelsea.
The £29million January signing has had a frustrating start to the season and had to wait until last weekend to make his first Premier League start under Pochettino.
His sensational dribble and shot against the crossbar after just 10 minutes against Brentford almost gave his Chelsea career lift-off, but he was substituted after 67 minutes as the Blues lost 2-0 at Stamford Bridge.
Fit-again Mykhailo Mudryk is likely to come back into the team in place of Madueke at Spurs, with Raheem Sterling, Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson also set to start ahead of him.
Many players in the Chelsea squad were excited about Pochettino’s appointment, after seeing him develop young talent like Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Dele Alli and Eric Dier.
But Madueke saw it differently, having said in March that he left Spurs aged 16 in 2018 to avoid getting “lost in the system”. Within a year, he was playing senior football with Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven.
Understandably, Pochettino was never going to be able to give every young player at Chelsea but Madueke must again feel concerned about his lack of football this season.
He has featured for just 200 minutes in all competitions, with his only other start coming in the Carabao Cup win over AFC Wimbledon.
His non-selection has not all been down to Pochettino.
Madueke missed much of pre-season with a hamstring injury he sustained in winning the European Under-21s Championship with England over the summer.
He was then dropped in September after being filmed at a nightclub in Mayfair after he had pulled out of the England Under-21 squad with injury.
Pochettino could have hidden his dismay behind an injury but chose to make an example of Madueke.
“We were talking about this video with him,” he said. “All the players need to know that when we are a player of Chelsea to try to avoid these things. It wasn’t a big issue but we always need to avoid these types of situations.”
Madueke is said to have reacted well to that criticism by knuckling down in training and avoiding invites to public places.
He hopes to feature against Spurs, at least by making an impact off the bench, as he bids to show his old club, Chelsea and Pochettino what he is about.
