Journalist reveals Pochettino’s relationship with PSG chief is ‘irreparably damaged’

French football expert, Philippe Auclair, has told talkSPORT that Mauricio Pochettino’s relationship with Paris Saint-Germain Sporting Director Leonardo is ‘irreparably damaged’.

Football.London’s Alasdair Gold revealed on Monday that Pochettino remains Tottenham’s number one target but added that the North Londoners still have a long battle ahead to swoop for the Argentine, with PSG continuing to dig their heels in.

Guillem Balague has indicated that the former Tottenham boss has to publicly declare his intention to leave Paris for a return to Spurs to become a possibility, while Football Insider have reported that the 49-year-old is not likely to force himself out of Parc des Princes.

Auclair has now given Tottenham fans some hope by revealing that Pochettino has had a falling out with Leonardo after the pair had some heated exchanges about the running of the team.

However, the journalist revealed that it is the Brazilian who is more likely to leave than the 49-year-old.

He told talkSPORT: “The relationship between Mauricio Pochettino and Leonardo is basically irredeemably broken.

“So, there cannot be a situation in which Pochettino stays and Leonardo stays, that’s where we are at the moment.

“There have been some very heated exchanges between the two and Pochettino has not exactly appreciated the fact that a lot of the affairs of the team have been overseen by Leonardo, including contracts extensions.

“At the same time, Leonardo has been on French radio telling that Pocehttino still had two years to run on his contract, which came as a surprise to everybody as we thought he’d signed an 18-month contract in December, so had one year left. But apparently, there might have been an extension clause that was triggered.

“But, after what happened last week when you had two former PSG managers win the Champions League and the Europa League, I’m not absolutely sure Leonardo is perhaps in the best of positions to have any problems with these Qatari owners, who are really the ones pulling the strings.

“It would not have escaped their attention that the manager Leonardo fell out with so spectacularly after he took them to the Champions League final [Thomas Tuchel] went back to that final and won it with another team, which does not have stars like Neymar and Kylian Mbappe in its ranks.

“So you shouldn’t think Leonardo has got such an incredibly good relationship with the owners that he is going to survive any of this crisis – this is not the case.”

Spurs Web Opinion

It sounds like Pochettino might be using Tottenham’s and Real Madrid’s interest to wrestle power away from Leanardo at PSG. If that is indeed the case, then Spurs should turn their attentions to other targets.

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