Could Premier League champions Manchester City replace Guardiola with former Tottenham Hotspur coach Mauricio Pochettino?
Mauricio Pochettino is interested in potentially taking over from Pep Guardiola at Manchester City should the Spaniard ride off into the sunset at the end of the campaign, according to The Sun (20 December, page 88).
Despite being handed his P45 by Tottenham Hotspur a month ago after a miserable start to the season, Pochettino remains one of the most respected and coveted tacticians on the planet.
The Champions League runner-up has been linked with the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG and even Arsenal – but reports suggest that he is Manchester City’s number one target too if this proves to be Guardiola’s final season at the Etihad.
And the respect is mutual, it seems.
The Sun reports that Pochettino has even turned down a £12 million offer to replace Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid, a job he has openly flirted with in the past, because he is waiting to see whether the City hotseat will become available in the next few months.
The report even adds that the former Southampton and Espanyol coach is aware of City’s interest with a man who almost single-handedly transformed Spurs from perennial also-rans into a genuine European force intrigued by a potential return to the Premier League.
Guardiola has already etched his name into City folklore with successive top flight crowns but their decline in recent months has been staggering at times. The reigning champions look all-but certain to lose their crown, sitting 14 points adrift of Liverpool, while they have failed to beat Newcastle, Norwich, Wolves and Manchester United.
As Bayern Munich and Barcelona fans will tell you, the drop off after losing a coach like Guardiola is almost unavoidable so hiring a man like Pochettino, an intense and demanding tactician, could help to make the transition a smooth one.
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