Former Tottenham player Andros Townsend has leapt to the defence of Mauricio Pochettino on Twitter.
The Crystal Palace winger – who cost the Eagles £13 million – hit back at Darren Bent’s assessment of the Argentine.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Bent said he didn’t think Pochettino was a world-class coach, and added that he thinks Mikel Arteta and Brendan Rodgers are better managers than the ex-Southampton boss.
In defence of his former manager, Townsend tweeted: ‘@DarrenBent on the click bait this morning… either that or something stronger.’
This would usually be unsurprising news, but the history between Pochettino and the England international makes it interesting.
Townsend was actually frozen out at Tottenham by the ex-Espanyol boss.
The Crystal Palace No.10 was involved in an on-pitch row with fitness coach Nathan Gardiner following a 3-1 win for Spurs over Aston Villa in 2015.
After that incident, an infuriated Pochettino said that Townsend needed to learn how to act, and described his behaviour as ‘not normal’ – he also dropped the forward from his squad for the next game.
The Guardian quote the Argentine as saying: ‘But it was not normal behaviour. He is young and you need to understand that it isn’t the way to impress the manager. He needs to learn about football, about behaviour, about discipline, about a lot of things.’
It is unclear how their relationship is nowadays.
However, what is evident is the fact that Townsend is still fond of his former manager, and showed he believes Pochettino truly is a world-class coach by hitting back at Bent’s comments.
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