Poche poached? Tottenham's manager could be a hot commodity this summer

As everyone not living under a rock knows at the moment, Jose Mourinho was fired from Chelsea today, ending a tumultuous year for the Portuguese manager that saw Chelsea drop to 16th place under his leadership. It appears at this point that Guus Hiddink will take the reins on a temporary basis and Chelsea will look for a permanent replacement this summer.

In addition to the Mourinho-shaped hole at Stamford Bridge, there's a ton of smoke wafting from the direction of Germany that Pep Guardiola is unlikely to return as manager of Bayern Munich this summer. There have also been murmurs that both Manchester United and Manchester City may opt to make a managerial shift this summer as well, as Louis Van Gaal and Manuel Pellegrini have both found their seats uncomfortably warm in this first half of the season. Factor in as well the mutters of unhappiness about Rafa Benitez coming from Madrid, and the strong possibility of Diego Simeone leaving Atletico Madrid for one of these hypothetical vacant jobs, and there's a real chance that the biggest summer stories might not be player signings, but managerial appointments.

But what does this mean for Tottenham Hotspur? It could mean quite a bit. Spurs' Argentine first team coach Mauricio Pochettino has taken a sad-sack Spurs team underachieving with overpaid players and in 18 months transformed them into a side expected to challenge for Champions League qualification while fielding the youngest squad in the EPL with an attractive style of play. That could very well make him a target for a larger club as the managerial merry-go-round spins in earnest this summer.

Pochettino has made a name for himself at Spurs and with Southampton as a manager who can not only coax the best out of his existing players, but can develop and promote promising youth from the academy, and who gives chances to youngsters who are on the cusp of breaking through into the first team. That's an attractive proposition to a lot of teams.

That's not to say that Poche would be interested in any of these jobs – he might be committed to the Tottenham project, or the money might not be right, or he may not want to depart a stable gig in North London for the pressure cooker of another, higher profile job. But he might. And nobody could blame him if he wants to take his 4-2-3-1 and high pressing offense to a place a couple rungs higher up the ladder.

This is also, at this point, 100% speculation. We don't know if Poche would be a candidate for any of these jobs. We don't even know if a few of these clubs would even make changes by this summer. Yet it seems likely that amidst all this chaos that Spurs might well expect a few phone calls from club representatives inquiring about the availability of their manager.

It's ironic that, now that Spurs are committed to holding onto its bright, young talented stars like Harry Kane, Hugo Lloris, Dele Alli, and Christian Eriksen, the person most likely to be bought out from under them at this point is their manager. Poche departing Spurs for greener pastures and a larger club is not a foregone conclusion by any means. With the number of big clubs either making moves or considering making moves, however, it sets the stage for the possibility of another tumultuous offseason for Tottenham Hotspur.

I'd tell us all to brace ourselves, but we already know what this feels like.