Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has called for Chelsea to be stripped of their 2017 Premier League title and for Spurs to be crowned champions instead, after Chelsea admitted breaking financial rules during the period they won the trophy, while also confirming Spurs approached him earlier this year during their relegation battle.
Mauricio Pochettino believes his Tottenham side from a decade ago, who scored 86 goals and collected 86 points during the 2016-17 season, deserved to be crowned Premier League champions that year, rather than Chelsea, who ultimately won the title. Chelsea have since admitted breaking the rules by making secret payments exceeding £47 million to unregistered agents and third parties in order to secure transfers. Pochettino has no doubt the club should now be stripped of that title, comparing the situation to an Olympic silver medallist being upgraded to gold after the original winner is disqualified.
Pochettino’s case for a title change
“We should win one title, one Premier League,” Pochettino insists. “We should have been awarded it. They were punished. They admitted it. The title should be for the team that was second.” He argues the playing field was not level at the time. “We deserve to be champions that year. We didn’t compete with the same rules. It’s impossible if some clubs play with offside and others don’t or one plays with VAR and another plays without VAR. For everyone the same rules and then the same capacity to create the best team.”
Chelsea were fined by the Premier League this year over the illegal payments, which covered a period from 2011 to 2018 and included the deal to sign Eden Hazard, who played a starring role in the 2016-17 season as Chelsea beat Spurs to the title under Antonio Conte. The club avoided sporting sanctions because the offences were self-reported and Chelsea cooperated with the investigation.
Pochettino argues that rule-breaking of this kind could have had a direct impact on results. “Maybe with the same rules we could’ve signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals,” he said. “It’s not me complaining, it’s the truth. I have no doubt and I’m not scared to say the truth. The Chelsea fans will be upset with me but if Tottenham broke the rules, I’d say we don’t deserve the title.” He was careful to add: “I don’t say they didn’t play well or that Conte wasn’t great. I don’t want this message twisted. But if you broke the rules, then ‘ciao’, you need to give it to another team.”
A defining, trophyless era at Spurs
Pochettino has managed both clubs during his career, though his single season at Chelsea is remembered far less fondly than his five years at Tottenham, widely regarded as the club’s finest period in recent history, despite ending without a trophy. With Harry Kane scoring freely and the team playing fluent, attacking football, Spurs finished as Premier League and Champions League runners-up during his tenure, all while operating under financial restrictions tied to investment in a new stadium and training ground. Between January 2018 and July 2019, the club made no signings at all, and Pochettino’s cumulative transfer spend across the first five of his six summer windows in charge came in below £300 million.
Reaction to Spurs’ summer spending spree
Asked whether he envies current manager Roberto De Zerbi’s summer of ten signings, costing close to £400 million, Pochettino insisted he holds no resentment. “I am happy,” he said, speaking from London ahead of this month’s international break. “Tottenham is still my club, and I want the best for them. If they have the possibility to spend on proven players in the Premier League it’s good for the club. After the relegation battle it’s important to improve and not to suffer.”
The current spending strategy is being driven by a new generation of the Lewis family, who own the club, including patriarch Joe Lewis’s daughter Vivienne Lewis and her son-in-law Nick Beucher, alongside chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange.
A continuing bond with Daniel Levy
More than a year has passed since Daniel Levy was ousted as Tottenham chairman. Despite periods of tension during their time working together, Pochettino says he and Levy grew close and remain in regular contact. “He feels like I did when I was sacked,” Pochettino said. “Now he knows the feeling. Yes, I keep in touch with him. I never made the situation personal.”
He described the isolating experience of departing a club suddenly: “It’s like you receive the letter and you are sacked, pick up your things and you can never come back. Maybe 200, 300 people that were your family, you cannot say goodbye, cannot send a text, cannot do nothing. That was really, really tough for me. I was talking with him about that.” He added: “Of course, I’m not happy that now he feels the same because I am not a person with bad feelings. It’s difficult because for him. For 25 years he was building his house, his club, and what happened after, for sure, was tough for him, for his family and of course I am so sorry for him and for everyone.”
Spurs’ approach earlier this year
Pochettino confirmed that Tottenham made contact with him earlier this year, during a turbulent mid-season period in which the club moved from Thomas Frank to Igor Tudor and came close to relegation. “Yes, but in this moment they called everyone, all the coaches, those free and not free,” he said, though he was serious in adding: “If I was free, of course, I come. But I wasn’t free. I was preparing the World Cup.”
At the time, Pochettino was committed to leading the United States into the World Cup as hosts, with his initial two-year contract set to expire after the tournament and no decision yet made on his future. He has remained consistently open about his desire to one day return to Tottenham, saying he would not have been deterred even had the club been relegated to the Championship. “It’s the only club that always I am open to help, whatever division,” he said. “Another club, no. But Tottenham, yes.”
Once Tudor’s brief tenure turned sour, Spurs moved to secure De Zerbi on a long-term deal, ending any prospect of a reunion with Pochettino for now. “The timings were never the best,” he reflected. “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. A little bit unlucky. Maybe one day the stars will align and it can happen.”
Success and scrutiny at the World Cup
At the World Cup, Pochettino’s USA side made a strong start, capturing public attention in a country where football is not traditionally a leading sport, before losing to Belgium in the last 16 amid controversy surrounding Folarin Balogun’s escape from suspension and claims of interference from President Donald Trump. Pochettino has rejected suggestions that the Balogun affair should serve as an excuse, saying instead that his team simply failed to perform to their best when it mattered most.
He explained that the bonds formed with the US football federation around the tournament, combined with the public reaction to the team’s early success, played a key role in his decision to sign a new four-year contract. “Before the World Cup we met the board in New York and they offered us four more years,” said the 54-year-old Argentine. “I said, ‘Yeah but if we lose all the games…’ and they said, ‘No, no, no we trust in you and your vision and the way you behave.'”
The US federation was aware other clubs might attempt to approach Pochettino during the tournament, but he committed to entertaining no offers and entering no negotiations until after the World Cup had concluded. When that time came, he was ready to sign through to 2030, covering another full World Cup cycle, with upcoming friendlies scheduled against Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada.
Life among football’s elite coaches in international management
Pochettino now sits among a group of prominent former Premier League managers, including Thomas Tuchel, Jürgen Klopp and Carlo Ancelotti, who have moved into international football. Asked about the appeal of the role, he said: “It’s more pure. It’s intense with limited time, but you enjoy a lot one week with the players.” He added: “The players are not toxic, they come because they want to enjoy, they want to play, they don’t have time to become upset or disappointed because they don’t play. It’s all very motivated and the moment they start to become upset they go home to their clubs.”
Family, England and Kane’s Ballon d’Or claim
Away from his own coaching career, Pochettino’s son Maurizio, 25, plays for Inter Escaldes, Andorra’s first club to reach the league phase of a UEFA competition, in the Conference League.
Pochettino’s affection for Tottenham and English football more broadly remains strong, despite the fierce rivalry with his native Argentina rekindled by a recent World Cup semi-final. He did not rule out the idea of one day managing England once his time with the USA comes to an end. “With our experience maybe yes,” he said. “I believe in diplomatic things.”
He also gave his unequivocal backing to England captain Harry Kane to win the Ballon d’Or. “It’s Harry Kane’s time,” he said. “It’s not clear today who is number one in the world and should win. In the past, it was more clear. He deserves it in his career and if I am to pick one then it’s Harry Kane.”
