After Thomas Tuchel was appointed as Chelsea boss, some publications picked up on the fact that the German boss had previously spoken in glowing terms about Tottenham.
Borussia Dortmund side overcame Spurs in the Europa League round of 16 in 2016 when Tuchel was Dortmund boss.
After the second leg at White Hart Lane, where his side emerged 2-1 victor, the 47-year-old admitted that he pretended to be Tottenham when he was playing in the backyard with his friends as a young boy.
He also spoke in very positive terms about Spurs fans and the atmosphere at White Hart Lane.
Needless to say, that is unlikely to go down with Chelsea fans given the rivalry between the two clubs.
When asked about his previous comments about the North Londoners, Tuchel admitted that he did like the Lilywhites when he was young but insisted that he is now fully focused on helping the Blues overcome Spurs when the sides meet next week.
The new Chelsea boss told The Evening Standard: “I want to be very honest. We played the Europa League game with Dortmund at Tottenham and everyone . . . I just explained when I was young there was no daily matches live from Germany so all I could see was two minutes every few weeks.
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“Suddenly Tottenham came across on our sports broadcaster and I heard the name Tottenham Hotspur. I have talked about that story. I was young.
“That was one of my first experiences, I did not know it was a club from London. Now I am aware I work for their big rivals and you can be sure we will do everything we can to beat them next week!”
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