Real Madrid have been linked with Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino.
According to Sky Sports, Madrid have been interested in appointing Tottenham boss Pochettino as their manager following the departure of Zinedine Zidane.
French legend Zidane stepped down from his position as the Madrid manager just days after guiding Los Blancos to their third successive Champions League triumph.
COPE has claimed that the European giants have ended their interest in the Argentine, and Sky Sports’ Spanish football expert Balague has also made the same claim.
Balague told Sky Sports: “Real could see there was so many positives in signing him, not just the fact he can deal with the stars but how he improves players and how he works with youth players as well.
“But what they had in front of them was the possibility of negotiating with Daniel Levy for perhaps a month, even longer, with no guarantees whatsoever that they were going to get him.
“They know that Levy is a very tough negotiator, with Florentino [Perez, Real Madrid’s president] having been in touch with him in recent seasons. They’ve decided to abandon the possibility of signing Mauricio Pochettino.”
Pochettino signed a new contract with Tottenham recently, and it would have been very hard for Madrid to negotiate with club chairman Daniel Levy.
Levy is known to be a very shrewd businessman and a very tough negotiator, and even Spanish sports daily AS has paid a ‘tribute’ to the Tottenham chairman by making the following post on social networking site Twitter.
It will be interesting to see who eventually becomes the new Madrid head coach.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
