Sidwell: Pochettino will Stay at Spurs
Former Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell has backed the blues to go for Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino as a potential replacement for Antonio Conte. Rumours about Chelsea going in for the South American have emerged in the last few days, as it is becoming increasingly certain that Conte will leave the blues after the FA Cup final against Manchester United. A disappointing campaign has seen Chelsea finish outside the top four, despite winning the league title only 12 months ago.
The 35-year-old claims that Pochettino has all the attributes required for managing teams with big budgets and objectives. Even though the South American has done exceedingly well at Spurs, it is unlikely that the club can keep hold of players like Dele Alli and Harry Kane for much longer. Such players are expected to be potential targets for top clubs in the summer, if they do well at the World Cup 2018. Kane and Alli are seen as key figures in the England team, who can be backed to get past the group stages in the World Cup free bets.
At the same time, Sidwell does not expect Pochettino to leave Spurs – especially for a local rival. Throughout his playing days, Pochettino was able to show plenty of loyalty. The 46-year-old had three spells with Espanyol and later went on to start his managerial career with the Spanish outfit. Such qualities are expected to keep him at Tottenham, but a lot will depend on his talks with chairman Daniel Levy about the need to spend greater sums of money in order to start winning trophies. Sidwell said:
“There’s no smoke without fire so there’s probably an element of truth in there, and you look at it the other way where he [Pochettino] is looking for contract renewals – or maybe his agent has put the idea in there – to buck Spurs’ ideas up. But if it is true I’d welcome it with open arms.”
Despite a successful campaign in which Spurs qualifying for the Champions League once again, the club have the settle for a trophy less campaign.