Pundit names the ‘one man’ Levy should look to hire at Spurs if Conte leaves

Jamie O’Hara has claimed that Mauricio Pochettino is the obvious choice that Tottenham should turn to if Antonio Conte leaves, insisting that the Argentine has ‘unfinished business’ at the North London club.

It remains unclear whether Conte will remain at Tottenham beyond the end of his contract this summer, with some reports over recent weeks indicating that the 53-year-old wants to return to Italy to be closer to his family (The Sun’s Martin Lipton on Off The Ball podcast).

O’Hara has said that while he is a big fan of Conte, it might be time for the former Inter boss and Spurs to go their separate ways.

The former Tottenham midfielder told Grosvenor Sport: “We’ll see what happens with Antonio Conte at the end of the season, but I’ve got a sneaky feeling we’re going to see Pochettino back in the Spurs dugout come next season.

“I think Conte will run his contract out and I think he might just leave at the end of the season as a mutual agreement. I don’t think he’ll get sacked, he won’t leave on bad terms.

“I just don’t know if this has been the right move for him personally – in terms of where he wanted to go and how he saw it.

“There’s been some stumbling blocks with Daniel Levy and players that he wanted to get and how he saw the team that he wanted. I don’t know if Spurs are moving forwards with him.

“I’m a massive fan of Conte, he’s a brilliant manager, but I think he’s had a lot of issues off the pitch this season which have hindered him – his operation and losing people that he loved. So I think at the end of the season he’ll take a step back and say, ‘I need a bit of time off’ and that’ll be it.”

Some publications have suggested over the last two months that Spurs could look to rehire Pochettino (Daily Mail) and it emerged just a few days ago that the 50-year-old had turned down Chelsea’s approach since he did not think the West London club would be the right fit (90 min).

Meanwhile, Football Insider suggested last week that Tottenham are admirers of Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi, having been impressed with the work that he has done at the Amex Stadium since replacing Graham Potter.

However, O’Hara believes that it is a no-brainer for the Lilywhites to rehire Pochettino, backing the Argentine to get the team playing attacking football.

The pundit added: “If Conte goes, there is only really one man for the job, and that is to bring Pochettino back this summer. There’s unfinished business.

“Spurs were playing great football with Pochettino. The season he got sacked he fell out with Daniel Levy over players, and he was absolutely right – he didn’t get backed, he didn’t have the players that he wanted. Spurs needed to reinvest in the team, like we’ve seen this season with Liverpool.

“Under Pochettino, Spurs were brilliant for three or four seasons, they nearly won the Champions League which would have been the icing on the cake of his reign.

“But after that season there was a huge drop-off as the squad needed investing in. You’ve got to refresh the squad as players will run out of legs after three of four seasons of high-intensity football and that’s what happened with Pochettino. He tried to address it and he didn’t get backed.

“So in the end it looked like Pochettino was done and the results were poor, but actually Pochettino’s reign at Spurs was unbelievable. I think he’ll want to get back there now, with the new stadium, if he gets backed more… You might see a better Tottenham with Pochettino.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I am completely in favour of bringing Pochettino back if Conte departs at the end of the season but Spurs fans and pundits must be careful not to rewrite history about the Argentine’s first spell at the club.

It is true to say that he was not backed at certain times. For example, we failed to sign a single player in the summer of 2018 and still ended up almost winning the Champions League during the 2018-19 campaign.

However, the 50-year-old was backed comprehensively during the summer of 2019 ahead of our first full season at the new stadium before things started to go pear-shaped for him.

Spurs spent well over a £100m on the acquisitions of Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso, Ryan Sessegon and Jack Clarke that summer and had even agreed on another club-record deal with Juventus for Paulo Dybala before the transfer fell through due to issues with the attacker’s image rights.

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