Mauricio Pochettino would love the chance to manage Spurs again.
That is the view of former Aston Villa and Liverpool attacker Stan Collymore, who believes the Argentine tactician is waiting for Daniel Levy to give the go-ahead for him to succeed Antonio Conte.
Following a public outburst after Spurs’ abysmal 3-3 draw against bottom-of-the-table Southampton last weekend, Conte, who slammed his team, is now expected to be sacked.
“I’m not used to seeing this type of situation. I see a lot of selfish players and I don’t see a team,” the Italian told Sky Sports during a 10-minute post-match last weekend.
“We are 11 players that go into the pitch. I see selfish players, I see players that don’t want to help each other and don’t put their heart [in].”
Although the Lilywhites are rumoured to have multiple managers on their shortlist, following Bayern Munich’s recent decision to part ways with Julian Nagelsmann in favour of former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel, Collymore believes Conte’s successor is an obvious choice for the Lilywhites to make.
“I know Mauricio Pochettino’s assistant Jesus Perez very well and I believe the Argentine would jump at the chance to go back to London,” the ex-pro said in an exclusive interview.
“It seems he has been holding out and waiting to see if a club like Barcelona or Real Madrid come in for him but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen, so a return to Spurs now makes a lot of sense.
“I think he’s just waiting for Levy to say to him ‘I’m sorry, I messed up, I shouldn’t have sacked you, come back, here is £200m, go and spend it, build a new team and go and win us a trophy!”