Anxious times at Spurs as Madrid interest grows

Real Madrid’s reported interest in replacing Zinedine Zidane with Mauricio Pochettino will cause real concern at Tottenham, says Sky’s Matt Le Tissier.

Real have shortlisted our Mauricio to take over at the Bernabeu,according to Sky’s Spanish football expert and author of the Pochettino book Guillem Balague, should Madrid legend Zidane fail in reigniting the club’s severely ailing season, which sees them 19 points adrift of Barcelona after 19 games.

And Soccer Saturday pundit Le Tissier believes the speculation linking the Argentine with a return to Spain will certainly induce anxiety among the fanbase and board at Wembley.

Speaking on The Debate on Sky, he said: “There will be concerns. There will be Spurs fans thinking, if we lose him this will be a few years’ work, hard graft down the swanny.
“With the team spirit that he has engendered there and getting the players all sorted on contract and keeping them together, with not the biggest budget in the world.

The former Southampton hero added: “The players are there for all the right reasons. He’s wanted them to be there and I would imagine, somewhere along the line in those discussions, it was mentioned that that was a project and he said: ‘I’m here for the duration.’We’ll see ourselves into the new stadium, give ourselves the chance to kick on again, be with me. That would make it very difficult, in that situation, if he then, the first time a club came along, just went: ‘See you later.'”

Ex Arsenal winger Ray Parlour also agreed with Le Tissier but suggested Pochettino reevaluate before making a rash decision about the next chapter in his managerial career.
“If I was Pochettino, one day he may go to Real Madrid, but at the present time I think he has a really exciting few years,”:he added.

Parlour went on to say: “The problem he’s going to have is the players. He has a good squad, but he needs to build that squad a bit more in the summer. If they all stay, and they build, then why should he leave? He still has a lot of business to do at Spurs”

Le Tissier continued to argue however a failure to secure Spurs’ qualification for the Champions League next season could have implications for Pochettino.He said: “I think Levy feels like he has the right man in place there, and the club is moving forward. But they still do have their work cut out to get into the Champions League. But if they don’t get into that Champions League, does he come under a bit of pressure.They’re not near challenging for the title, and if they don’t get into the top four, will Levy look at it and think they’ve gone backwards? Things change so fast these days in football.

He added: “But I’d like to think he’s bought enough credit in the bank with the owners to get another chance if they were to finish outside of the top four.”

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