Pochettino dismisses Gareth Bale transfer rumors as “not realistic”

Silly season! Predictably, Mauricio Pochettino was asked about transfer signings and rumors after Spurs’ penalty shootout loss against Barcelona in Pasadena last night. And, because American journalists ask the best questions, he was asked about the possibility that Spurs could shock the world by re-signing former player and Real Madrid superstar Gareth Bale.

“I think it’s not realistic,” said Poch.

If I could, I’d dedicate an entire paragraph to nothing but thinky-face emoji here.

I wrote what I think is still the correct take on the Bale-to-Spurs rumors back in early May, and there isn’t anything that would make me change my opinions on the matter. In fact, I think it’s even LESS likely that Bale would come back to Tottenham now that Cristiano Ronaldo has left for Juventus. Bale is now the Man™ at Madrid, just like he’s wanted for years. He has no reason to leave (apart from that the Madrid fans still seem to hate him for some reason.)

Poch went on to say that he expects Spurs to actually make some signings in the next two weeks, but refused to discuss individual targets.

“I think we’re going to [complete deals], sure, [we’ll] see what happens in the next few days. If you say we need to sign, maybe, but with or without injuries that was our target after we finished last season – to add some players with qualities that can help us achieve all that we want.

”After many years in football, I think nothing’s going to change if you have different moods or humour. You need to be relaxed, working hard. My focus is trying to help the team and develop the way we want to play and arrive in the best condition to start the season. Nothing’s going to change if I changed my behaviour or the way I act.

”I’m not going to talk about targets or names. We’ll see in the next few weeks.”

As for who those signings might be, it’s anyone’s guess, but as of now the best candidates are the attacking midfield triumvirate of Anthony Martial, Wilfried Zaha, or Christian Pulisic. There haven’t been any strong links to anyone else lately, but keep in mind that Spurs have made shock signings out of the blue — most recently it was Fernando Llorente on deadline day last summer, but also Son Heung-Min was a surprise as well. Buckle up for what looks like a potentially eventful final stretch of the window.