Ready for a little Halloween weekend terror? Here’s a rumor that might keep Spurs fans up at night. The Sunday Mirror is out to give Tottenham Hotspur fans the frights by suggesting that Mauricio Pochettino is in Real Madrid’s sights to succeed Zenedine Zidane at the Bernabeu.
You say you want quotes? Solid reporting? A modicum of plausibility in this story? Oh, sweet summer child, this is the Daily Mirror. You’ll get none of that here. Instead, the entire rumor is predicated on two major assumptions: 1) that Zidane is already being pushed out (or as the Mirror puts it, “doubts have surfaced over his long-term future”), and 2) Pochettino is the kind of highly ambitious manager that would be ready to make the leap to one of the biggest clubs in the world.
And you know what, both could be 100% true! We have no idea. However, it’s a huuuuuuuuge leap at the end of October, and there doesn’t seem to be any indication that a managerial departure in Madrid is anywhere near likely. Anyway Poche is a system guy and probably wouldn’t depart Spurs in the middle of the season.
But what about this summer? Spooky! We do know Poche is an ambitious manager, and no doubt the Madrid job would be a plum appointment, even if Perez eventually gets tired of him and goes on to the new hotness in a couple of years.
The Mirror also dropped this little factoid that I wasn’t aware of:
Pochettino is highly ambitious and would be tempted by the chance of working for one of the world’s biggest clubs.
He was Sir Alex Ferguson’s first choice to take over from Louis van Gaal at Manchester United but Spurs rebuffed all overtures before Jose Mourinho was installed as Old Trafford boss.
LOL. Thank goodness Poche avoided THAT particular house of horrors.
At any rate, Poche just signed a new deal himself this summer through the 2021 season, so if Madrid really do want him they’re going to have to pay through the nose to get him. Which they can do, obviously, but so long as Poche doesn’t have his head turned for whatever reason there’s zero reason to be worried about this. Even if this has a feel of Madrid coming back to the Tottenham well for another drink.
I’m much more inclined to believe that, it being Halloween and all, this is just the Sunday Mirror jumping out from behind the hedge and shouting BOO!