Mauricio Pochettino has admitted it was difficult to ignore interest from Real Madrid last summer, claiming managing the Spanish giants is “a dream” for any coach.
Pochettino was a leading target to replace Zinedine Zidane following the Frenchman’s surprise resignation last May. The Tottenham manager had just signed a new five-year contract in north London and he killed the speculation almost as soon as it began by insisting he would honour his new deal.
The Argentine, who has said he could quit Spurs if they beat Ajax tonight and win the Champions League Final against Liverpool, says chairman Daniel Levy refused to entertain interest from the Spanish capital but admitted he felt conflicted by the situation.
Speaking to El Pais ahead of tonight’s Champions League semi-final, second-leg at Ajax, he said: “The situation was difficult. The dream of every coach was at stake: to lead the biggest team that exists. And you must say no. That is momentous. It creates a conflict. Because you know that if a coach wants to leave, he leaves. But I had just signed a renewal with Tottenham. And I felt that I could not do anything. Daniel Levy did not accept the offers to free me and if they ask me to break the contract I cannot accept it because I cannot behave like that.
“If my chairman thinks I’m going to continue, I’m not going to run off. Those are not my values. Why is it going to be good for a club to sign a coach who violates his commitments?”
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Pochettino also revealed that a number of the club’s World Cup stars asked to leave Spurs in the summer, when they became the first club since the introduction of transfer windows not to make a single signing.
“They called me during the World Cup and they said to me, ‘I’m leaving’. I said, ‘Talk to the chairman’. They say, ‘Yeah, but I want to tell you because I’m excited to go and play this or that club’. I tell the chairman, “Do not trust the player who wants to stay, not the one who wants to leave, because the one who wants to go to a big club often does it because he is ambitious and wants to win titles, and that is the kind of footballer who needs Tottenham because that player is also the one who is going to deliver to the maximum’.
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Pochettino’s side beat Manchester City in an epic Champions League quarter-final and will set up a meeting with the Reds in Madrid if they beat Ajax.
Both clubs have far greater resources than Spurs, who have a net-spend of just £30million under Pochettino, but the manager said he would not necessarily want to swap places with Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola. “Would I like to be a City or a Liverpool? To some extent yes and to some extent no,” he said. “I prefer to fight for something that can be historical, unique.”
