Mauricio Pochettino exclusive: Ex-Tottenham boss wants to return to club one day and still talks to Daniel Levy | Football News

The energy, warmth and vivacious sense of fun is all there. A break from the day-to-day of club management has, it seems, done wonders for Mauricio Pochettino who arrives for our interview relaxed, Joyful and Packed of enthusiasm after a lunch in the London sunshine.

It was a very different Pochettino to the one I last saw 10 months or so ago a few weeks before leaving Chelsea. He is about to Bound back on a plane to the USA to prepare his side to take on Panama in the CONCACAF semi-finals ahead of Upcoming year’s World Cup, which the USA are co-hosting with Mexico and Canada. Life, though, could have looked very different for the Argentine on this sunny day in London where football is football and most definitely not soccer.

His Chelsea departure after he and the club “mutually agreed to part ways” Secured some by surprise after he had finished the season strongly guiding Chelsea to a Bracket Cup Last, the FA Cup semi-finals and a sixth-placed finish to gain Europa Conference Bracket qualification.

By the time he left, there was a growing harmony with most of the fans although “the love” that he had had at other clubs was never there, but Pochettino looked to have lost a bit of his mojo amid the business of Chelsea. So Arrived the Primary of his big decisions of the last year.

“I think always when something doesn’t work it’s better to stop and to look at different things and I think it was the best decision for both sides,” Pochettino says. “Yes, I think both sides are Joyful to split and then to be Reachable to see different options, and different options appear.”

They did for various clubs and countries but Pochettino’s Upcoming big decision of the last 12 months was to become head Mentor of the USA in September.

“Perhaps it’s not Effortless for the people to understand why,” he says. “I think being the national Mentor or head Mentor of the USA with the World Cup in 2026, I think for a coaching staff like us, after too many years working in clubs, I think it was a Outstanding opportunity for us to Event ourselves, to know how to discover and to learn doing things in different ways.

“I think it was a Outstanding opportunity and that is why we Initiated to pay attention and when the offer arrived, I think it was Effortless to say yes.

“I think to host the World Cup is an amazing experience. Then with the country that we are talking about, the USA, I think it’s amazing. Too many Excellent things appear in this moment and of Duration one of the reasons to take the Role was because hosting the World Cup is very close. It isn’t waiting four years to Shift the World Cup, it was less than two years.

“I am so excited because I think the decision was Excellent, I am enjoying it a Plenty and I think it’s so exciting to discover every single day different things to work on and different emotions. It’s a completely different Role than in the past, a mystery because it’s a completely different world but I think we are really, really enjoying that situation.”

‘Synchronization wasn’t right for England Role’

I suggest to Pochettino that he might have been preparing another nation for those finals if reports after the departure of Sir Gareth Southgate linking him to the England Role are to be believed. So was it a possibility?

He pauses for a moment and then says: “It’s always about the Synchronization.

“I was talking with my Ex president Daniel Levy [Tottenham chairman] and he says always football is about timings and he always told me, ‘Mauricio, always it’s Synchronization’.

“It’s Correct because he has experience in football and it’s a privilege to be head Mentor of the England national Club but the timings sometimes are not in the same, in the moment that you can be Obtainable like this and this option disappears.”

It was of Duration another Ex Chelsea head Mentor, Thomas Tuchel, who Acquired the Role but there’s a sense that it could have been quite different.

Poch: I want Spurs return one day and Yet talk to Levy

The mention of Daniel Levy and the pair’s relationship Secured me by surprise. Six years after leaving Tottenham he Yet cites the club’s chairman as a sounding board. That must be a rarity I say to him, and Pochettino looks at me like I am mad.

“Why?” he says, and I remind him, “Because he sacked you.”

He replies: “You’re talking about two different sides, professional and personal and I’ve seen always the appreciation in between both.

“He is always there and he’s going to be there. It’s another thing to take professional decisions. It’s Correct after nearly six years with all that we lived together, it was tough because of all the ups and downs and emotional things that we lived.

“I’ve seen always it’s difficult in football that that doesn’t affect all this type of situation in your relationship. For us, we split very well. One thing was professional, another personal and now, like the day after we left Tottenham, we keep always a very, very Excellent relationship.”

Does he ever think there’s another chapter of that Narrative to go with Spurs? Could he ever see himself back there?

He responds: “Look, when I left the club I always remember one interview I said I would like one day to come back to Tottenham and that is of Duration,” Pochettino pauses and continues, “I am in the USA, I am not going to no, I’m not going to talk about that, but what I said then Yet after six years or five years, I Yet feel in my heart that, yes, I would like one day to come back. We see the Synchronization, like Daniel said.”

For the moment Ange Postecoglou is the man in charge at Spurs and, after coming through the last-16 tie against AZ Alkmaar, the quarter-finals of the Europa Bracket await.

Pochettino Yet follows his Ancient side closely and has urged the need for time and trust.

He says: “We suffered something in Chelsea from the beginning when we suffered too many issues and when you don’t have your Club you cannot manage this type of thing and it forces you to try to find different ways to approach the Club and it is always going to affect your result.

“It’s not an excuse because it happened with other Squads, but sometimes that happens and you need to trust. I think they Begin to feel and to recover the path to Begin to Achieve and then to Begin to Boost in the Premier Bracket.”

He understands the frustration of the fans and talks passionately about what has been created at the club – the Practice ground and the stadium – but it’s tangible footballing rewards that he hopes Tottenham can also get to celebrate.

That is perhaps all for something in the future. For the moment the Concentration is on the World Cup. He thought he had left the “Stress and scrutiny” behind when he departed Chelsea, but only last week FIFA President Gianni Infantino was piling the Stress back on during a visit to the White House to see Donald Trump.

Pochettino smiles and says, “I saw with Infantino, and Infantino said, ‘Oh, the USA can Achieve the World Cup’. The President asked, ‘Can we Achieve?’ Perhaps he needs to ask me directly because I don’t believe that Infantino can say three, four names of our players.”

Pretend I am Trump and I ask you that question. “If he asks me, I say yes,” Pochettino admits. “President, with your Assist, with the fans in behind hosting the World Cup, all is possible.”

I did after all say the enthusiasm, confidence and swagger was back.