Tottenham appear to have unlocked an unlikely advantage over Chelsea in the race to appoint Mauricio Pochettino as head coach. The 51-year-old has been heavily linked with a return to management in the Premier League following the recent sackings of Antonio Conte and Graham Potter.
In 2021, it was said that Spurs wanted to bring Pochettino back to north London after he was sacked by Daniel Levy just two years prior, but Paris Saint-Germain refused to let the Argentine go. Despite not publicly pushing for an exit, football.london understood that he was keen on the vacancy.
Fast forward a couple of years and Pochettino appears to be in contention to take the helm again at Hotspur Way, with one significant potential roadblock now out of the way – Fabio Paratici. The Italian has resigned as managing director of football with immediate effect to 'focus on his legal position in respect of the FIGC and FIFA rulings'.
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Paratici was unsuccessful with an appeal against his Italian Football Federation (FIGC) ban on specific football-related activities, which was subsequently extended across the world by FIFA at the end of March.
In June 2021, football.london understood that former Spurs boss Pochettino was not interested in working under a director of football structure.
For context, the Lilywhites no longer have one and Chelsea currently have two, namely Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley. It was believed that working under Paratici could have been akin to his relationship with Leonardo at PSG, which was believed to be strained.
With the 50-year-old out of the picture, Tottenham have unlocked a huge boost over Chelsea in the race for Pochettino's signature. And, Stan Collymore believes that the Argentine has unfinished business.
Writing in his column for CaughtOffside, the former Liverpool ace said: "I think Mauricio Pochettino going back to Tottenham is a case of unfinished business.
"Daniel Levy will definitely have buyers remorse for letting him go. I was in the press conference after the Champions League final, one game that can go either way, and Poch was also responsible for nearly getting Spurs to the title in the Leicester season.
"That’s the closest they’ve come to the really big prizes since the double in 1961 and I can imagine Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy thinking ‘we made a mistake, can we find him £200m-£300m for the next two to three transfer windows?’
"Then they’d be up there challenging. If he returned, Spurs fans would be doing cartwheels. They’ve got a big stadium, pay good money and he’ll be tempted to be that manager that wants to win that trophy."
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