Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville believes Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino is gearing up to leave north London for Real Madrid after Julen Lopetegui was sacked on Monday night.
Lopetegui took over the reins from Zinedine Zidane who departed in the summer after winning three consecutive Champions League crowns.
However, the Spaniard’s time in the dugout lasted only 14 games as he was sacked on Monday night following Madrid’s 5-1 Clasico defeat to Barcelona – their fifth loss in six games.
This is the second time Lopetegui has been sacked less than five months; he was dismissed as Spain’s national coach prior to the World Cup due to accepting an offer to manage Madrid.
With a vacancy in the Madrid dugout, Spurs manager Pochettino has emerged as a favourite after he made negative comments before his side’s 0-1 defeat to Manchester City in the Premier League.
Pochettino said before the game “this season my feeling is the worst” and explained “the club is not focused completely on winning titles” as their plans to move into a new stadium have been hit by delays.
And Neville, who was co-hosting Sky’s coverage of the game believes Pochettino’s comments could be laying foundations for a move to Los Blancos.
“What I would say is a bit of a worry are Mauricio Pochettino’s comments,” he told Monday Night Football (via Sky Sports).
“I said before the game it’s the first bricks in the foundations of potentially wanting to leave and during the game tonight the Real Madrid coach has been sacked.
“If you are Real Madrid and you are thinking ‘Where can I get a manager, where’s the next manager?’ He speaks Spanish and has been a coach in La Liga. That is an appealing job for anybody in world football.”
Neville added that Spurs will find it difficult to deter the Argentine coach from reaching the exit door in north London as the prestige Real offer can not be matched.
“That next level is available at arguably the greatest club in the world of football in Real Madrid,” he said.
“That’s where the manager might be thinking ‘is this now the time for me to step out?’ I think Tottenham, if Real Madrid want him, will have a real problem in the next few days.
“I don’t think they do, we are just putting two and two together, but we spoke about the timing of his comments, and is the timing because a job has become available?”
With or without Pochettino at the helm Spurs will head to east London on Wednesday to face West Ham in the League Cup – they then face Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday.
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