Spurs fans on Twitter have been reacting to a report on Mauricio Pochettino, which suggests that during his time with Tottenham, he was often sceptical of new signings, and more than once turned down the chance to sign players offered to the club, which included Marco Asensio and Youri Tielemans.
According to the Evening Standard (via The Spurs Web), the Argentinian manager was a lot more sceptical of new signings than Jose Mourinho is, with the Portuguese manager willing to take a chance on Steven Bergwijn who was suggested to him by the club in January, whereas Pochettino was less keen to work in this way, turning down the chance to sign both Asensio and Tielemans.
Tielemans has now established himself as a Premier League regular with Leicester City and has impressed in his time in England; averaging a 7.14 rating during his loan spell in 2018/19, and he has also started this season in strong form; averaging a 7.07 rating across his four top-flight appearances thus far (per WhoScored), suggesting that he could have been a decent addition to Pochettino’s Spurs side.
Do you think Pochettino made the right decision with these two players?
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Asensio, meanwhile, has established himself as somewhat of a regular in the Real Madrid side in recent seasons, after an impressive spell with Espanyol in the 2015/16 season where he contributed four goals and 10 assists, averaging a 7.03 rating (per WhoScored), again suggesting that the Spanish international could have done a job for the Lilywhites.
Reaction from Spurs fans to this report on Pochettino can be seen in the tweets below.
He turned down asensio really? Hard to digest
— Hritik Patel (@HritikPatel16) October 6, 2020
Can’t believe he turned down Tielemans
— ? (@luisHotspur) October 6, 2020
Interesting
— Stephen (@Massey_14) October 6, 2020
So this whole time we were blaming Levy, it was Poch all along
— Zach (@ZachTHFC) October 6, 2020
Whilst some Spurs fans seem shocked that Pochettino turned down these players, others feel that he didn’t do anything wrong in rejecting the chance to sign them.
There’s really nothing wrong with this. If he didn’t feel comfortable with the proposed signings it’s okay.
— Rg_nald (@Rg_nald_SA) October 7, 2020
Pochettino knows ball
— MK (@TongeeNdombeIe) October 6, 2020
Overall, it seems as if quite a lot of Spurs fans were surprised by this news on Pochettino and feel that both Tielemans and Asensio would have been good additions to the squad.