Pochettino responds when asked if Llorente has asked to leave Tottenham

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Tottenham Hotspur striker Fernando Llorente is likely to leave in 2019.

Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino has told Football.London that striker Fernando Llorente has not asked him for a January move away.

Pochettino swooped to bring Llorente to North London in August 2017, launching a deadline day raid to sign the Spaniard from Swansea City.

After 15 goals in his first Premier League season, Llorente looked to be an ideal signing for Spurs in order to compete with Harry Kane, but it has been a tough time at Spurs for the veteran.

Llorente has scored just six goals for Spurs and is sometimes left out of the squad entirely, with a 2019 exit seemingly on the cards.

At 33, Llorente may fancy one last run at regular first-team football somewhere, and with his contract expiring at the end of the season, it seems inevitable that he will move on.

Earlier this week, Spanish radio station Cadena SER spoke to Llorente, and he admitted that he would be open to re-signing for former club Athletic Bilbao, but would have to speak to chairman Daniel Levy about an exit.

Today, Pochettino was asked about the situation, and suggested that Llorente has not asked for a transfer away from Spurs, adding that they haven’t spoken about an exit at all, but will see what works best for the club and player.

“Still we didn’t talk, I promise you,” said Pochettino. “There’s a lot of things that have been happening in the last month and we’re so focused on competing in the best way every three days. I think it’s not a thing we need to plan too much, because sometimes in football when the moment arrives we’re going to talk and we’re going to decide the best for the team, for the club and for the player of course.”

“We’ll see the priority of the player, the priority of the club. But I think still we have a few weeks and then we’ll see what happens and it’s sure we’re going to try to take the best decision for the player of course but for the club too. No, we didn’t talk. At the moment I didn’t talk with no-one about that, about nothing,” he added.