Within minutes of Zinedine Zidane finishing his Real Madrid goodbye press conference, Mundo Deportivo reported Mauirico Pochettino as a main contender for the position.
That wasn’t unusual, near enough all the Spanish media outlets reported the same. He’s an obvious candidate, along with others including Joachim Low and Guti.
Mundo Deportivo claimed Pochettino has a release clause in his new Tottenham contract, the one he signed just last week. For an amount of money which wasn’t specified by the report, the manager would be allowed to take over at the Bernabeu.
The claim came so early it looked like a guess, and Mundo Deportivo is a Catalan newspaper so there’s always the possibility they’re setting Madrid up to be turned down… at least from a stirring perspective.
Now Marca are reporting it too, with the Madrid leaning Spanish newspaper saying: ‘Pochettino renewed last week with Spurs, but he did it with a condition that is none other than being allowed to go in case Real Madrid call him.’
Sport, another Catalan newspaper, add to the claims: ‘Pochettino kept an ‘ace’ up his sleeve: included is an escape clause in case he’s called by Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain for the duration of his contract with Spurs.’
There’s no claim on this yet from AS or El Confidencial, although both push the Spurs manager forward as a leading candidate.
It’s hard to believe that Tottenham would allow such a clause without any further clauses attached to it, meaning it could be activated at any time.
