Mauricio Pochettino back to Tottenham? Daniel Levy would be making a bold move

On the Paris St Germain website there is 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 is 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 in the long run.

Daniel Levy would be bold to approach Mauricio Pochettino over a shock return to Tottenham

At Tottenham, all this has not gone unnoticed. Without a manager of their own since the sacking of Jose Mourinho back 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 attempt it. The two men parted on pretty poor terms when Pochettino left north London in the November of 2019.

His relationship with at least some members of the squad were also damaged.

To leave PSG would see Pochettino pass up on the chance to further coach the likes of Neymar

But Tottenham are a club in need. Brighton manager Graham Potter and Belgium coach Roberto Martinez continue to be talked about but Pochettino – who took the club to the Champions League final in 2019 – would be a significant upgrade on either of those.

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 seriously bring him home now would be extraordinary especially given that any evidence of a genuine rift at PSG would in all likelihood be seized upon by other big clubs in Europe.

Real Madrid are now without a coach after the departure of Zinedine Zidane. Spanish news outlets were full of talk of Pochettino within minutes of that news breaking. In Italy, meanwhile, Antonio Conte has left Inter Milan.

Pochettino continues to have 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 with a club at which he had formed such bonds had come far too early.

The Argentine won the French cup this season but failed both domestically and in Europe

Spurs’ interest in Pochettino is genuine; there is no doubt about that. 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 a Pochettino, just as it did on Thomas Tuchel – now anticipating a Champions League final with Chelsea – in the period before him.

But is the alternative really that more appealing? His previous experience of working with Levy wore him down in the end.

With the potential summer exit of Harry Kane looming, Spurs are a team in need of a rebuild

Either way, PSG were adamant this week that they did not want to lose a manger they only appointed in December.

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 isn’t necessarily 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.