Mauricio Pochettino would be open to a Tottenham return after more than three years away, a former member of his Spurs staff has claimed.
The Argentinean manager was in charge in North London between 2014 and 2019, leading Spurs to the Champions League final and securing four successive top-four finishes in the Premier League. He won Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain after leaving the Premier League side, but has been biding his time since PSG replaced him with Christophe Galtier over the summer.
Spurs' current boss Antonio Conte is out of contract at the end of the season, and there have been suggestions he could leave before his deal is up. Pochettino isn't the only candidate, with former Bayern Munich boss Julian Nagelsmann also in contention, but the man who oversaw a second-place finish in 2016-17 was popular with the fanbase throughout his tenure.
“I think Spurs will change coach," David Webb, head of elite identification and player development at Spurs between 2015 and 2017, told The Sun. Webb, who earlier worked as a scout at Pochettino's Southampton, was at Spurs when they signed the likes of Son Heung-min and Toby Alderweireld.
"I don’t know the ins-and-outs of how fractured Poch’s relationship is with Daniel [Levy, Spurs' chairman]. And I don’t think that Poch wants to pigeon-hole himself solely to the Premier League.
“If a good offer were to come up in Spain or Germany, he’d be open to that, too. But the Premier League will always be his first choice. He was phenomenal at Tottenham — and would be open to it again.”
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Webb, who was a youth coach at Crystal Palace when Wilfried Zaha joined the club's ranks, also suggested the Ivorian could become Pochettino's first signing if the manager returns. Zaha is out of contract at Palace at the end of the season, though he is attracting interest from Saudi Arabia after previous links with Spurs and Arsenal.
“I know Poch was a big fan of his," Webb said of the 30-year-old. "I still think he’s attractive for a couple of years because he’s still got great attributes for the Premier League.”
Despite winning the league title in his one full season as PSG, Pochettino's failure in Europe contributed to his departure from the Parc des Princes. Les Parisiens were beaten by Real Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 this term, though PSG - and also Conte's Tottenham - fell at the same hurdle this time around.
Conte helped Spurs climb into the top four after replacing Nuno Espirito Santo 10 games into the 2021-22 campaign. A repeat continues to hang in the balance, though, with Newcastle poised to leapfrog Conte's fourth-placed side if they win either of their two games in hand.
