Mauricio Pochettino’s move to Manchester United will inevitably stir up the emotions of Tottenham Hotspur supporters all over again.
The question of whether Pochettino might one day make a return to Spurs has been an enduring subplot over the past seven years, practically from the moment he was sacked in November 2019.
Pochettino and Spurs have flirted with a reunion on at least three occasions since, most recently early this year when Spurs were mired in a relegation battle.
According to Pochettino, Spurs were in touch about a rescue mission but the Argentine was committed to the U.S. men’s national team for a home World Cup over the summer.
Roberto De Zerbi, who Spurs insist was always their top target, was persuaded to take the job, leaving Pochettino — and many supporters — to reflect on another opportunity missed.
“The problem was that the timings were never the best,” Pochettino – who was also in touch with Spurs in summer 2021, when he was still in charge of Paris Saint-Germain – told reporters in September, fluttering his eyelashes at his former club for what felt like the umpteenth time.
“When I was free, I never received a contact and then when I was working, I received a contact but I cannot make the decision to come back. It was a little bit unlucky.
“Maybe, one day, the stars will align and it can happen. If I was free, of course, I come. But I wasn’t free. I was preparing (for) the World Cup.”
Pochettino loves to nurture the idea that he has unfinished business in north London and, on the face of it, his move to United should alter little about his love affair with Spurs.
When Pochettino moved to Chelsea in summer 2023, it was supposed to be a kind of closure for Tottenham — albeit in the grimmest way imaginable.
But supporters were quickly able to forget his year in west London, in part because Pochettino palpably struggled to warm to Chelsea, while making no effort to hide his continued affection for Spurs.
Unlike Chelsea, United are not one of Spurs’ hated rivals, so Pochettino should be free to lean into the romance of United’s history and culture — as he will surely want to do — without seriously compromising his status as one of Tottenham’s favourite sons.
Teddy Sheringham and Dimitar Berbatov are regulars on Tottenham’s legends circuit, despite jumping ship for United during their playing careers, while Michael Carrick — whom Pochettino will succeed at Old Trafford — also remains well-regarded at Spurs.
But in joining United on a two-and-a-half-year deal, the chances of the stars aligning for Pochettino’s reunion with Spurs now seem a little more remote.
Perhaps Pochettino will use his remarkable qualities as a firefighter to address United’s perma-slump or perhaps he will be the latest coach to find the club’s dysfunction impossible to overcome; either way, it could be many years — if ever — before the 54-year-old is a viable option for Tottenham again, particularly as United tend to give their managers time (or at least more time than Chelsea).
As things stand today, many Spurs fans can brush off Pochettino’s latest move to a ‘Big Six’ rival.
De Zerbi has enormous credit in the bank after saving the club from catastrophe last season, and there are promising signs that the Italian can be the first head coach since Pochettino to combine a full cultural reset with modern, front-foot football. In fact, today De Zerbi was named the Premier League Manager of the Month for October.
Given the chance, most supporters would not swap De Zerbi for Pochettino — or anyone else.
Inside the club, too, there is a sense that Spurs are now looking forwards rather than backwards, refreshed by a new approach from the ownership, underpinned by an ambition that was painfully absent when Pochettino was in charge.
But the pining for Poch is sure to rise to the surface when Spurs hit a rough patch, and it was a comfort to know that, with the World Cup out of the way, he was effectively waiting in the wings should De Zerbi — as is his tendency — combust.
Perhaps having Pochettino off the table will be a good thing for Spurs.
He has, in a sense, come to feel like an albatross around the club’s neck, a shadow hanging over the club, providing an unhelpful point of comparison for fans (and columnists) of a certain age who have struggled to let go of the exhilarating promise of the Pochettino era.
If Pochettino can work his magic at United and fall for another English club, it might enable both him and Spurs to finally move on, particularly if De Zerbi returns the club to a successful footing.
But since parting ways, neither Pochettino nor Spurs have hit the same heights, and there is also a world in which both continue to be dissatisfied, casting agonised glances at the other in times of need.
If Pochettino never gets the chance to return to Spurs, there may always be a lingering sense of ‘what if?’, an itch that remains forever and frustratingly unscratched.
With his move to United, that possibility seems likelier than ever.