Tottenham news: Manager Mauricio Pochettino confirms he would have quit if Spurs won the Champions League final
Mauricio Pochettino admits he would probably have quit Tottenham had they won the Champions League.
The Argentinian has been in the hot-seat since 2014 and led the club to their first Champions League final in the summer.
Spurs lost 2-0 to Liverpool in June's Madrid showpiece - an outcome that seemingly prevented Pochettino moving on to pastures new.
"It was an amazing period," he said. "After five years in a difficult project at Tottenham we talk a lot about perception and reality, how we fight and all the energy we expend trying to get Tottenham fighting with the best teams in Europe and England.
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"Of course it's always in your head, you never know. With the way I am, I am always going to prioritise the club over myself."
Pochettino continued: "Maybe if it was a different result after the final you can think, 'OK, maybe this is a moment to step out of the club, leave the club and give them the possibility of a really new chapter with a new coaching staff'. But after the final I felt this was not great to finish like this. I'm not a person that avoids facing problems or a difficult situation.
"I love a massive challenge, a difficult challenge and of course now to rebuild that mentality to make it possible to repeat a similar season, that is exciting and motivates me a lot."
Mauricio Pochettino was asked why he stayed as #THFC head coach at today's press conference pic.twitter.com/iz1Xg93gjF
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) July 19, 2019
Asked if he could have made a different decision had Spurs won the Champions League, Pochettino said: "For sure. You know very much when you touch glory you behave differently or you feel different or the players feel different and the challenge becomes different.
"It's like Kieran (Trippier, who joined Atletico Madrid) explained to me in private and to the media in Madrid - he loved to be at Tottenham and work with us but at 28, 29, sometimes a player needs to discover need things and new challenges.
"That is inside yourself and it's only you who knows how you feel - it's not about agreeing or disagreeing, it's about accepting how you feel. You are an individual, you have (an) individual challenge and you have to accept (it) if all the parts are happy."
Tottenham's likely signings
- 1/5 Ryan Sessegnon
- 4/9 Giovani Lo Celso
- 7/2 Callum Wilson
- 7/2 Jack Grealish
- 6/1 Donny van de Beek
Pochettino's squad has changed a little since the Champions League final, with Tanguy Ndombele arriving from Lyon in a record-breaking deal and Kieran Trippier departing for Atletico Madrid.
Fellow full-back Danny Rose could also be on his way after being omitted from the squad that arrived in Singapore for their pre-season tour.
"Danny is still our player and of course for different reasons (Georges-Kevin) Nkoudou and Vincent Janssen they deal with the club with, of course with Daniel (Levy, owner) and the agents to take a little bit more time there to fix different problems," he said. After 10 days after we play Man United and Juventus, when we come back to London if they are, they are going to be in a normal way with the team.
"It was Kieran's decision. He communicate the day before we travelled here and he told me that he accept an offer from Atletico Madrid and in the end it was the club who communicated with me that they had agreed a deal. I wasn't involved in all this discussion in the last week."
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