Pochettino: Daniel Levy gave me good news on the stadium

Hey, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but Tottenham Hotspur still haven’t announced when they’re going to play their first home match at their new stadium. Isn’t that wild? But there is the tiniest of updates that points to a forthcoming positive development. In a press conference yesterday, Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino said that chairman Daniel Levy spoke to him about the new ground, and that the news was “positive.”

A positive update! That’s good, right?

“I saw Daniel [Levy] yesterday and he’s very positive.

“I still think it’s going to be tough, but that was before Palace went through in the FA Cup and we changed the game. Many things have happened [since] to make us more positive, to believe that we can move before the end of the season.”

We’re gonna get periodic updates and speculation on the new stadium from now until the damn thing actually opens, so best get used to it. And while this isn’t massive news like the announcement of test dates or anything like that, it’s still a small bit of circumstantial evidence that things are moving in the right direction.

We’ve already talked about the scheduling issues at play — the earliest Spurs can open the new stadium is now April 6 against Brighton, and that will depend on whether the Seagulls win their FA Cup quarterfinal match at Millwall or not. If they crash out of the cup, Spurs are in a situation where they will HAVE to play at the new ground or ask the Premier League for a delay due to the unavailability of Wembley and stadium:MK.

Football.london journalist Alasdair Gold has already hinted that Spurs are looking at test events on March 16 & 30, which makes an April 6 opening date possible. And if you ask me, I think internally that’s when they’d really like to open — it’s a weekend date that meets the Premier League’s request to host their final five home matches at the new ground. It also would mean that Spurs would be able to (potentially) host a Champions League quarterfinal match the week following. The next eligible date to open the stadium would be against Huddersfield on April 13.

I still am confident that Spurs will open their new ground this season, and that it’s going to be incredible, so I’ll take whatever small, unsubstantiated secondhand positive updates I can get. Even if it comes from a game of telephone that starts with Daniel Levy and continues through Mauricio Pochettino and the English football media. Gimme that good news.