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

17 March 2025, 14:36 | Updated: 19 March 2025, 06:49

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, happy and full 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 jump back on a plane to the USA to prepare his side to take on Panama in the CONCACAF semi-finals ahead of next 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" took some by surprise after he had finished the season strongly guiding Chelsea to a League Cup final, the FA Cup semi-finals and a sixth-placed finish to gain Europa Conference League qualification.

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