Mauricio Pochettino took a weekend trip to Madrid, and Tottenham fans are probably relieved to know it wasn’t related to Los Blancos.
Real Madrid are having a very poor start to the season following the exits of Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo, and if it carries on for much longer then Pochettino being linked with the job again is inevitable.
Instead, Pochettino was at the Wanda Metropolitano and watched the home side beat Real Betis 1-0. Marca report he had a chat with Atletico executive director Clemente Villaverde in a box.
They don’t know why Pochettino was there, but suggest it could be to scout Atletico just in case Tottenham face them in Europe this season. That may be a stretch, Spurs could face so many teams that such planning is unlikely.
Pochettino had Toni Jimenez, Tottenham goalkeeping coach, with him, and therefore it’s interesting that Pau Lopez was on display. Spurs failed to sign the current Real Betis player despite having him on loan from Espanyol with a view to a permanent transfer.
Since then, just over a year ago, Pau has gone to be called up repeatedly by Spain and considered one of the better stoppers in La Liga. Despite Betis losing 1-0, Marca rated Pau as one of the best players on the pitch, his team’s ‘El Mejor’, and he’s in the newspaper’s La Liga Team of the Week.
Transfer regret will have been on full show. Given that Jimenez was with Pochettino, and how well Pau played, it’s inevitable the failed transfer will have come up.
The question is whether Spurs plan to do anything about that in the future.
