Former Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has been linked with a potential return to Spurs, but his current role with the United States national team means that is unlikely
Mauricio Pochettino is unlikely to return to Tottenham Hotspur any time soon, despite the former Spurs boss stating that he “would like one day to come back”. Pochettino managed Tottenham for five-and-half years between 2014 and 2019.
He replaced Tim Sherwood at the helm and guided Spurs to four top four finishes in five full Premier League seasons and the 2019 Champions League final. Pochettino is currently in charge of the United States national team, having been tasked with leading them into a home World Cup in 2026.
However, there has been speculation that Pochettino could return to Spurs given their struggles under Ange Postecoglou this season. Tottenham currently sit 14th in the league and Pochettino maintains a relationship with club chairman Daniel Levy.
“I am going to repeat. In the bottom of my heart I still feel the same. I would like one day to come back,” Pochettino said earlier this month when asked if he still has unfinished business with Spurs. “Not because of my ego it’s because my feeling is I would like one day to win with Tottenham.
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“I think now Tottenham is a club with an expectation to win because if you see the facilities – training ground or stadium – now you can see it is about winning trophies. That is why I would like one day to come back.
“But if that doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. With all the possibilities again to build something special, that is my feeling and it didn’t change. It’s six years since we left and it’s always going to be a special club for me.”
However, according to a report from BBC Sport, Pochettino is unlikely to leave his current role before the 2026 World Cup. It is claimed that it would take ‘one of the biggest financial compensation fees in football history’ for the United States Soccer Federation to release him from his contract.
Julian Nagelsmann’s move from RB Leipzig to Bayern Munich and Graham Potter’s switch to Chelsea from Brighton are reportedly the most expensive managerial buyouts in history, costing their respective clubs around £21million and it is claimed it would take a fee in the region of that figure to land Pochettino.
Although the US have suffered back-to-back defeats during the recent international break, losing 1-0 to Panama in the semi-finals of the Concacaf Nations League and 2-1 to Canada in the third-place play-off, Pochettino is not concerned.
“I’ve seen some times that teams that were building to play in the World Cup, they were not good until around the World Cup,” he said after the loss to Canada. “I want to send a message to the fans, don’t be pessimistic and don’t get bad feelings.
“I think we have time because if we will be in this situation in one year time, for sure, I will tell you, ‘Houston, we have a problem,’ no? In one year, if we’re talking about that, it’s because we have a big problem and we were not capable to discover, to try design a better strategy to provide to the team the capacity to play in a different way.
“I think we have time and I prefer that that happened today than [you] know, in one year.”
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