Just when we were about managing to get our heads wrapped around what might happen in the managerial roundabout, Zinedine Zidane decided to come out of nowhere and mess it all up.
The Frenchman surprised everyone on Thursday by walking away from the Real Madrid job, which, in turn, reignited the Mauricio Pochettino to Spain rumours we’d only just rid ourselves of.
The first we saw came midway through Zidane’s press conference thanks to COPE, who were then followed by Mundo Deportivo, Sport and Marca all coming forward and claiming the Tottenham manager had a clause in his new contract allowing him to leave for the Champions League champions should they come knocking.
Marca later retracted that claim, and Sport Witness then found out such a clause didn’t exist, either in written form or as a gentleman’s agreement.
Fast forward to Friday morning, and CalcioNapoli24 in Italy believe Tottenham already have their replacement for Pochettino and his name is Maurizio Sarri.
Still technically contracted to Napoli despite getting sacked and replaced by Carlo Ancelotti (that’s how the Italian law works, apparently), the Italian manager’s €8m release clause has now expired, meaning clubs would have to negotiate directly with Aurelio de Laurentiis to free the 59-year-old.
The Serie A club’s president is a proud and rather stubborn man, and he certainly won’t make it easy, clearly annoyed at Sarri turning down his contract renewal offers.
Over at Tottenham, the reason why the former Napoli manager is their number one target is mostly down to Franco Baldini, who is acting as his ‘sponsor’.
It also helps that he’d keep their philosophy of attractive football going all the while helping with defensive stability.
CalcioNapoli do also mention Pochettino’s so-called “Real Madrid clause” but we’re going to assume they’re just getting that from the Spanish press rather than that being their own information.
Baldini can recommend Sarri all he wants, but until the Spurs manager goes to Real Madrid, which isn’t that easy, this is all for nothing.
