Pochettino told to expect a hostile reception at Spurs when he returns with Chelsea on Monday

Tottenham‘s limp Champions League exit to AC Milan in March was the point at which supporters finally had enough of years of negative tactics, uninspiring football, and haughty managers. “He’s magic you know, Mauricio Pochettino,” was the defiant message chanted loud and proud by the masses as they trudged towards the turnstiles.

When Antonio Conte was dismissed soon after it looked as though the stars were aligning for Pochettino to make a romantic return to north London. The Argentine was out of work after a bruising if relatively successful spell at PSG, while Daniel Levy was on the lookout for another new manager at arguably his lowest point in over two decades as chairman. Pochettino was the obvious choice, but not the chosen one.

When a black-suited Pochettino strides out of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tunnel towards the touchline on Monday night for the first time in almost four years, it will be as Chelsea’s manager. Many of the home fans who clamoured for his return will give him a welcome back. Of sorts.

In the build-up to the game, Spurs fans have been asking themselves the same philosophical question: to boo or not to boo?

 “I think he’ll probably walk out to a crescendo of boos,” Martin Buhagiar, co-chair of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporter’s Trust tells i.

 “That isn’t necessarily my opinion of how he should be greeted back but I think it’s what is likely to happen given that he’s now joined Chelsea. It seems inevitable really.”

Pochettino made Spurs fans dream, transforming an underperforming rabble into title challengers and Champions League finalists.

He understood the club in a way that countless others both before and since did not, building a young, entertaining team that captured the hearts and minds of the fanbase.

Such was the depth of feeling towards him, the majority of fans did not want him to go even though the time was probably right. Levy acknowledged that sacking him was the hardest decision he had to make in almost 20 years of chairmanship.

And so the cult of Pochettino loomed unhelpfully over the club for the best part of four years. Quite literally, when a flag featuring Pochettino in front of an Argentina flag provided the visual backdrop to Jose Mourinho’s first home game.

 

Which is why his move to Chelsea has been interpreted in some quarters as an act of betrayal. Some will boo him, others will offer polite applause, but most, perhaps, will sit and do nothing.

“I’ll always be very grateful to Mauricio Pochettino for all that he did at the club,” says Buhagiar, who falls into the latter category.

“What he did at the club will stand the test of time. The football was great and we had a connection with the team for the first time in years. The connection that we have with Postecoglou and his team we’ve not had that since Pochettino left and the last time that I had that connection with a team before that was probably Terry Venables [in the 1990s].

 “Football fans should be free to applaud and boo whoever they like but for me personally, my love for the club is greater than my dislike for Chelsea so I’d rather remember what he did for my football club than care what he’s doing now.”

Speaking on Friday, Pochettino said he would not spend time “guessing” how he may be received by the Spurs faithful before insisting that any negative expression would not “change my emotions, my view, my feelings about a club where we spent an unbelievable journey.”

He also issued a defence of his decision to join one of the club’s fiercest rivals, reiterating that he would never manage Barcelona, Arsenal, or Rosario Central out of respect for Espanyol, Spurs and Newell’s Old Boys.

“I don’t think he helps himself by saying he wouldn’t manage Arsenal because,

for a lot of Spurs fans, the dislike for Chelsea is as high as it is for Arsenal,” Buhagiar contests.

“Mauricio knows the club, he was at Spurs long enough. We’re Chelsea’s biggest rivals. If you ask Chelsea fans who they dislike the most it will always be Tottenham. He knows that.”