OPINION
Jermaine Jenas obviously has history with Tottenham and the fans will be praying he is right when he says there is “no way” that boss Mauricio Pochettino will leave the club if he wins the Champions League this season.
Speaking to Football.London, Jenas spoke about how the Argentine’s journey will only continue if European football’s greatest prize is won by the North London club on June 1.
“The quotes he said in the press conference, I think if you look back over the last four years there’s been a history of him saying these sorts of things, when you think, ‘hang on a minute, what’s he saying there and what does he mean by that?’,” the pundit said to Football.London.
“But there’s no way if he wins the Champions League, I think he has already been promised some money to spend, and that club is only going in one direction, and he is going to want to be a part of it.”
Jenas may well be right – and the supporters will be praying there is no way Pochettino is just going to jump ship if he leads Spurs to European glory.
When the Argentine came in in 2014, it was said that Pochettino would be the leader of a project to take Spurs to the next level, and winning the Champions League could be just the start of that.
Spurs may have fluffed what has turned out to be their best shot at winning the Premier League when Leicester won it in 2015/16, but they are a different beast in the Champions League.
Getting past Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Ajax to reach the final is no easy feat by any stretch of the imagination, and there are surely lots of players across Europe who would be keen on joining such a project.
There is also the criticism of the lack of signings, with Spurs signing no players for two successive transfer windows. A lot of that was down to the cost of the new stadium and, as Jenas points out, it is likely that Pochettino will be backed this summer.
That means he has an opportunity to improve his squad and with shrewd signings like Lucas Moura and Son Heung-min really settling in and buying into Pochettino’s ideas, there is a real chance others could too.
If Pochettino does leave, it will be a monumental blow to Spurs’ progress over the last few years. But all the signs are now pointing to the manager staying and improving his team this summer.