04 November 2023 , 22:30
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Mauricio Pochettino will grin and bear the boos on his box-office Tottenham return. But the Chelsea boss has promptly reminded Spurs fans that it was not his decision to leave the club in November 2019 when he was coldly axed by Daniel Levy.
In fact, Pochettino even claims he might still have been in the Tottenham dugout for Monday's crunch clash against the Blues had he not been handed his P45. When asked if he a raucous reception after Declan Rice received the same treatment at West Ham in midweek, the Argentine declared: "I am going to accept whatever they will show. The only difference is I didn’t decide to leave. We parted ways because I was sacked. It’s not a criticism of the club but that is the difference. We didn’t decide to leave. Maybe we would even still be there."
The prestige derby evokes painful memories for Pochettino, whose Premier League title bid with Spurs was infamously wrecked by Chelsea during the Battle of the Bridge in May 2016. Now the Blues boss, who considers Spurs to be genuine title challengers, is out to rain on Ange Postecoglou's parade by inflicting Tottenham's first top-flight defeat of the season.
Still, he feels no resentment towards his former employers or chairman Levy, who sent Pochettino a classy text following his Chelsea unveiling. The 51-year-old tactician insists there was no contact over a return to north London before signing his contract at Stamford Bridge. However, Pochettino did indicate that any approach would have fallen under consideration providing the timing had been right.
"It’s a good question but it’s difficult to answer," he replied when asked how he would have processed an approach from Tottenham. "We were previously involved at Paris Saint-Germain but the times [Spurs were looking for a new manager] never arrived at the right moment. That is why it - going back - never happened in four years, for different reasons."
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Pochettino, a volcano of passion, refuses to provide assurances he will keep his emotions in check on Monday - even if there is little room for sentiment. He previously confessed during his time at Spurs that he was nicknamed 'La Llorona' - which translates to 'The Cryer' - by his mother due to his sensitivity.
Mauricio Pochettino has maintained his relationship with Daniel Levy despite their 2019 Tottenham split (Getty)"The chairman [of Tottenham] will tell you the same," stated Pochettino. "He once said to me 'you are so emotional'. I remember when we spent the week together in Argentina and when we left the place I started to cry. It was Daniel, next to the driver, Jesus Perez and myself in a 4x4 car and when we arrived at the airport, Jesus said to me that Daniel asked: 'Why was Mauricio crying?' Like my mother said, I am very sensitive."
Incredibly, Chelsea have lost more Premier League matches (four) than they've won this term (three) under Pochettino. He had accumulated two more points (14) from his opening 10 top-flight matches at Tottenham in 2014 but he refutes that the two experiences are comparable.
"It is difficult to compare," he added. "When we arrived at Spurs, it was not long after Luka Modric and Gareth Bale had left and they had spent a lot of money on signing players. It was about young guys like Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Dele Alli, Son Heung-min, Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason. Here it is just the beginning and it's always tougher. When you have a young team it's always tougher to find a way to perform. This is a very exciting project. Our performances are good - what we are missing is translating those into results."