Although Tottenham Hotspur fans will forge ahead with Roberto De Zerbi as their new manager and hope that he has learned a thing or two from his mistakes of the past and is able to carry on the values of the club appropriately after his controversial decisions at Marseille, there will always be a sad sense of, "What if?" for many fans about Mauricio Pochettino.
One of the greatest managers in the club's history, if not THE greatest, Poch was competing for Premier League and Champions League titles on a shoe string budget. Back then, Daniel Levy was investing even less than Spurs and the Lewis Family are now, and yet Poch was getting twice the results. In hindsight, he put future hires Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho - two of the biggest managerial legends of the last 30 years - to shame.
Tottenham Hotspur supporters thought that Pochettino never should have been fired in November 2019 and made the scapegoat by Levy and Co. for the front office's obvious failings, and, thus, they were all for the Argentinian coach returning again to save the club in 2026 after his USMNT duties at the World Cup.
A Pochettino reunion is not ruled out
Instead, Tottenham only had eyes on Roberto De Zerbi, with Vinai Venkatesham, Johan Lange, and the Lewis Family all clearly valuing the volatile former Brighton and Marseille manager above their own club legend.
The good news is that a reunion in the future cannot be ruled out still. According to Ben Jacobs in his appearance on Last Word on Spurs, Mauricio Pochettino is still open to returning to Tottenham one day in the future. At no point in the managerial search process did he reject Spurs, as Jacobs confirms that the De Zerbi appointment was totally more about the club choosing RDZ than Poch picking against them.
While there was an element of the club picking against Poch, who is to say that they do not come to their senses in the future and change their minds? It feels like there is so much unfinished business between Pochettino and Tottenham, and fans will never truly know if 2019 was the right time to part ways until they try to run it back.
Given De Zerbi's track record of never lasting more than two years at a club before he blows things up in a sort of Antonio Conte Lite fashion, perhaps that Pochettino reunion could come sooner than the Lewis Family may think right now.