Ten years ago, Mauricio Pochettino started a season in which he Tottenham team scored 86 goals and collected 86 points, and he is convinced they should be crowned champions.
Chelsea won the Premier League in 2017, but have since admitted breaking the rules by making secret payments of more than £47 million to unregistered agents and third parties to secure transfers.
Pochettino has no doubt that the Blues should be stripped of that title. He also believes the award should rightly go to Spurs, just as an Olympic silver medalist would receive gold if the gold medalist was disqualified.
“We should win one title, one Premier League,” American boss Pochettino insists. ‘It should have been granted to us. They were punished. They admitted it. The title should have gone to the team that finished second.
‘We deserve to become champions that year. We didn’t compete with the same rules. It is impossible if some clubs play with offside and others do not, or one plays with VAR and the other without VAR. The same rules for everyone and then the same ability to create the best team.’
Chelsea was fined by the Premier League this year for illegal payments over a period from 2011 to 2018, including the deal to be signed Eden Hazard who excelled in the 2016-2017 season when they defeated Spurs for the title under Antonio Conte.
Chelsea won the Premier League in 2017, but Mauricio Pochettino wants it taken away from them
Pochettino has seen Chelsea punished for secret payments to unregistered agents
They escaped sporting sanctions because the violations were self-reported and they assisted in the investigation.
“Maybe with the same rules we could have signed players who would have made the team better or scored more goals,” Pochettino said. ‘I’m not complaining, it’s the truth.
‘I have no doubts and am not afraid to tell the truth. The Chelsea fans will be angry with me, but if Tottenham break the rules I would say we don’t deserve the title.
‘I’m not saying they didn’t play well or that Conte wasn’t great. I don’t want this message to be distorted. But if you broke the rules, then you ‘ciao’ have to give it to another team.’
Pochettino has managed both clubs. His one season at Chelsea will not live long in the memory, but his five years at Spurs are the club’s finest era in recent history, albeit without lifting a trophy.
They played fluid, attacking football and with Harry Kane scoring the goals, they finished second in the Premier League and Champions League, all on a budget constrained by investment in a new stadium and training ground.
Chelsea’s John Terry and owner Roman Abramovich are keeping the club’s latest league title alive
Tottenham finished second in the Premier League – on 86 points – behind winners Chelsea
From January 2018 to July 2019, Spurs did not make a signing. The cumulative expenditure of the first five of his six summer transfer windows failed to generate £300 million.
So, is he jealous of Roberto De Zerbi’s summer flurry of ten signings for a fee of almost £400 million?
“I’m happy,” said Pochettino, at home in London before this month’s international break. ‘Tottenham is still my club and I want the best for them.
“If they have the opportunity to spend money on proven players in the Premier League, it’s good for the club. After the relegation battle it is important to get better and not suffer.’
This discretionary spending strategy is being led by a new generation of the Lewis family that owns Spurs, patriarch Joe’s daughter Vivienne Lewis and her son-in-law Nick Beucher, along with CEO Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange.
Just over a year has passed since Daniel Levy was ousted as Spurs chairman. And while there were times when their relationship was tense, Levy and Pochettino grew close and stayed in touch.
“He feels like I did when I was fired,” Pochettino said. ‘Now he knows the feeling. Yes, I keep in touch with him. I never made the situation personal.
“It’s like you get the letter and you get fired, you pack up and you can never come back. Maybe 200, 300 people who were your family, you can’t say goodbye, you can’t text, you can’t do anything.
‘That was really tough for me. I talked to him about that. Of course I’m not happy that he feels the same way now because I’m not a person with bad feelings.
Pochettino is in regular contact with Daniel Levy – who is now also at Spurs
‘It’s hard because for him. He spent 25 years building his house and his club, and what happened next was certainly hard for him, for his family and of course I feel very sorry for him and for everyone.’
Pochettino confirms that Spurs contacted him earlier this year when their panic switch from Thomas Frank to Igor Tudor came dangerously close to relegation.
“Yes, but at this point they have called everyone, all the coaches, both free and not free,” he jokes, but he is serious when he adds. ‘If I was free, of course I would come. But I was not free. I was preparing for the World Cup.’
Pochettino was determined to lead the US to the World Cup as hosts, but his initial two-year contract expired after the tournament and no decision was made on his next move.
Since leaving in 2019, he has been open about his desire to return to Spurs one day and would not have been deterred if they had been relegated to the Championship.
“It’s the only club where I’m always open to helping, no matter what division,” he says. ‘Another club, no. But Tottenham does.’
As Tudor’s interim spell quickly turned sour, Spurs secured De Zerbi on a long-term deal and the idea of a romantic reunion in N17 disappeared once again for Pochettino.
“The timing was never the best,” he says. ‘When I was free I never received a contact and when I was working I received a contact but I can’t decide to come back. A bit of bad luck. Maybe one day the stars will align and it can happen.”
At the World Cup, his US team made a flying start, capturing the imagination of a country where football is far from top of the bill, only to lose in the last 16 to Belgium amid a row raging over Folarin Balogun’s escape from suspension and claims of interference by the president, Donald Trump.
Tottenham hired Roberto De Zerbi, but Pochettino says he has spoken to them about the job
Pochettino dismisses the Balogun affair as an excuse, saying only that his team did not perform at their best when it mattered most. And explains how the ties he built with the U.S. Soccer Federation around the World Cup and the public response to those early successes convinced him to sign a new four-year contract.
“Before the World Cup we met the board in New York and they offered us four more years,” the 54-year-old Argentinian explains. “I said, ‘Yes, but if we lose all the games…’ and they said, ‘No, no, no, we trust you and your vision and the way you behave’.”
The American federation was aware that there would be clubs trying to seduce Pochettino, but he promised not to make any offers or enter into negotiations, to concentrate on the World Cup and then meet again.
When that time came, he was ready to sign until 2030, a new World Cup cycle and upcoming friendlies against Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada.
He is part of a group of former Premier League coaches, including Thomas Tuchel, Jurgan Klopp and Carlo Ancelotti, who now ply their trade in international football.
“It’s purer,” Pochettino admits when asked about the allure. ‘It’s intense and time is limited, but you really enjoy the players for a week.
‘The players are not toxic, they come because they want to enjoy themselves, they want to play, they don’t have time to get upset or disappointed because they don’t play. It’s all very motivated and as soon as they get upset they go home to their clubs.’
Meanwhile, his son Maurizio, 25, is playing a career with Inter Escaldes, Andorra’s first club to reach the competitive stage of UEFA’s Conference League competition.
And his affection for Spurs will not fade. Nor his affection for English football, despite the fierce rivalry with Argentina reignited by a World Cup semi-final. He will not reject the idea that he would one day rule England once his work in the US is complete.
“With our experience, maybe,” says Pochettino. “I believe in diplomatic things.” As if to prove it, he offers his unequivocal support for England captain Kane to win the Ballon D’Or.
‘It’s Harry Kane’s time. Today it is not clear who is the number one in the world and should win. This used to be clearer. He deserves it in his career and if I have to choose one, it’s Harry Kane.’
