IF Tottenham fans thought they had reached rock-bottom at Newcastle on Sunday, with their bullet-ridden team 5-0 down after 21 minutes, then they should consider this very real possibility.That Mauricio Pochettino — the best Spurs manager of the last half-century, who had made it clear he fancied a return there — turns up at Chelsea and makes a success of it.
Mauricio Pochettino is on the verge of joining ChelseaCredit: Getty
It is difficult to quantify which of these bitter London rivals are in the biggest hole right now.
Is it Spurs, torched by their own manager Antonio Conte, then leaving his hapless mate Cristian Stellini in interim charge, only to sack the caretaker and appoint Ryan Mason as caretaker- caretaker, with sporting director Fabio Paratici having just been banned from world football for 2½ years?
Or is it Chelsea, in the bottom half of the Premier League, having spent £606million and with Poch likely to become their FIFTH boss of the season under a new regime which had boasted about stability and long-term planning?
Either way, either club could have appointed Pochettino to shovel up their sewage. Tottenham weren’t interested and the Blues clearly are.
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The vast majority of Spurs fans wanted the Argentinian back. Given that he left on warm personal terms with Daniel Levy in 2019 — and given that little has gone right since — re-hiring Pochettino seemed a no-brainer for a deeply unpopular chairman.
Take out Pochettino’s 5½-year reign, when Spurs massively over-achieved as runners-up in the Champions League and Premier League, and Levy’s 22-year stewardship of Spurs has, in footballing terms, been an unmitigated failure.
That Poch has apparently been blanked by Levy is bizarre even by Tottenham’s standards.
The Stellini experiment failed even more spectacularly than most had predicted, with Spurs in danger of plunging out of the European places completely following their 6-1 thrashing at St James’ Park.
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Tottenham were humiliated by Newcastle on SundayCredit: Getty
Two years ago, when Spurs were last in this position — winding down a poor season with Mason in charge — it took them 72 days before they stumbled upon Nuno Espirito Santo.
Then, as now, Julian Nagelsmann was the initial favourite, before he became one of several men to snub the job.
Nagelsmann’s own dalliance with Chelsea appears to have broken down mutually, leaving that door open for Pochettino.
Spurs haven’t had a boss with any true sense of permanence since Poch.
And as a result nobody has been able to act upon the obvious fact that their goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris, 36, has been past his best for some time.
That particular chicken came home to roost when a shellshocked Lloris was withdrawn at half-time on Tyneside, claiming a hip injury when a diagnosis of wounded pride seemed more likely.
Either club could have appointed Pochettino to shovel up their sewage. Tottenham weren’t interested and the Blues clearly are.Dave Kidd
Stellini opted for a back four against Newcastle, then decided his decision “might not have been right” when he reverted to a defensive five midway through the first half with his side five-down.
It was possibly the most glaring example in footballing history of shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.
Until Levy trumped it on Monday by sacking Stellini while branding the performance at Newcastle “wholly unacceptable” and “devastating”.
Stellini, a convicted match-fixer, had one previous managerial job in the Italian third tier, which ended with him being axed after three wins in 16 games. So this isn’t a case of 20-20 hindsight.
Whoever takes charge of Spurs next season — and Brendan Rodgers would be an excellent choice, if an unpopular one with a largely-delusional Spurs support base — it will not be Poch.
Brendan Rodgers is out of working after being sacked by LeicesterCredit: Getty Images – Getty
When he left Spurs, the fear was he might end up at Arsenal, who were about to sack Unai Emery.
Instead it looks like Chelsea, whose increasingly-bitter rivalry with Spurs has made fixtures between the clubs as heated as North London derbies.
It is not as if Pochettino will be entering any less of a madhouse at Stamford Bridge. But he’ll have better players, and a bigger budget, at Todd Boehly’s comedy club.
And the 51-year-old will not be too bothered about inheriting an unbalanced and bloated squad.
This is a bloke who had Kylian Mbappe and Neymar at Paris Saint-Germain and was then told he was getting Lionel Messi, despite advising his bosses that he did not need the little maestro.
After that exercise in ego management, dealing with the likes of Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk should be plain sailing.
Whoever takes charge of Spurs next season — and Brendan Rodgers would be an excellent choice, if an unpopular one with a largely-delusional Spurs support base — it will not be Poch.Dave Kidd
For all the shambles of Boehly’s first nine months, Chelsea could still compete next term, under an excellent workaholic coach in Pochettino.
That’s provided they sign a world-class centre-forward and sell several players to comply with Financial Fair Play and give them enough space to fit everybody inside the dressing room!
Should Poch make a decent fist of it, and his record suggests he might, anger towards Levy will only grow.
The chairman gave a rare public address recently to the Cambridge Union, in which he told some of the nation’s finest young minds that Spurs are “the greatest club in the world”.
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And this is the danger with over-estimating your own intelligence and always believing you are the smartest man in the room.
You end up sounding foolish, you end up 5-0 down after 21 minutes, and you end up allowing the best thing that ever happened to you to fall into the arms of a sworn enemy.
Cristian Stellini is the latest manager to be axed by SpursCredit: Getty More
