BEVERLY HILLS, May 30, (THEWILL) – In an intriguing turn of events, Mauricio Pochettino, the manager for former Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain, has asked to be released from his contract at the Parc des Princes. Coming just five months after joining the club, it has generated a lot of interest, and intrigue, as to what may have resulted in this circumstance.
THEWILL recalls that in a midseason reshuffle at the managerial level, Pochettino was brought in to replace Thomas Tuchel back in January, with the German wasting no time to find a new job when Roman Abramovich welcomed him to take over from the vacancy created when Chelsea let go of club legend and former coach Frank Lampard.
However, over at PSG, Pochettino attempted to get the season balanced and under his control. But, it did not take long for their failures in Ligue 1 and the Champions League to generate swirls of rumours about the Argentine’s potential unhappiness in Paris.
This was growing to discontentment even though the season was not completely devoid of silverware as Les Parisiens were able to cop two trophies with the celebrations of their triumphs in the Coupe de France and Trophee des Champions for the season.
A quarrelsome notion of bad blood between Pochettino and PSG director Leonardo did nothing to help convince the manager to continue with his contract at the season’s end. To compound the status of Pochettino’s continuation in Paris is the interest he appears to be generating from his old English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur and La Liga giants Real Madrid.
PSG may not have thought it likely that Pochettino will have any inherent interest in either or both of these clubs only to have the Argentine ask to cut his time in Paris short so that he can leave, with the implied notion being that he may have secured a place for himself somewhere else.
If the Paris club has no intentions to begin manager-hunting, it will be a tight spot for Pochettino because it will mean his request will be turned down and he will have to prove himself in the one year left of his contract if he has any interests in being favourably considered in any other managerial slots he may be interested in.
On the other hand, the open position he may be gunning for now will not remain open to wait for him to be free of his contract.
Yet, a stay for him at Paris will be the lesser evil and can work out if he and Leonardo can iron out their differences. Pochettino will happily stay as he still loves the club from his playing days and recognises just how desirable the PSG gig truly is with an extra year to truly make the squad his and bring back the glorious winning ways of yesteryears.
That should be enough to return his focus to Paris and take it away from enticing prospects like joining Real or returning to Spurs. More than anything, Real are the most interested in the Parisian club. Apart from getting Pochettino, they are also in the market for PSG’s centurion French forward, Kylian Mbappe, and would not want to ruin the chances of missing out on both because of one.
But, Los Blancos know how strong their attraction is for any manager and only need to indicate their interest to be in a position of getting their man. Spurs, on the hand, have no qualms making their interest in getting Pochettino back in north London as obvious as possible. They already plan formal discussions with PSG, to bring the 49-year-old back.
Whichever way it goes will be interesting to see as the movement of managers has marked this period as one of the most interesting in Europe than has been for a long time.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
