Dimitar Berbatov fears delays over Tottenham’s new stadium could push Mauricio Pochettino towards taking the managerial vacancy at Real Madrid. Pochettino has long been on the radar of the La Liga giants and the rumours have strengthened ever since his Tottenham side beat Real Madrid at Wembley last season.
However, delays over the club’s new stadium and a lack of investment in new signings have raised doubts over whether Pochettino will stay at the club, despite only signing a new contract earlier this year.
Former Spurs striker Berbatov, who spent two seasons at White Hart Lane, believes all is not right behind the scenes and thinks the Argentinian could be tempted if Real Madrid come calling.
“The question everyone wants to know is whether Pochettino will leave Spurs before they move to the new stadium,” he told Betfair.“As we can see in football it’s not only players that get tempted to leave one club for another. Managers and sporting directors do it too.
“This is football and you just never know what might happen next. The only person that knows is him and maybe even Mauricio doesn’t know.
“But this is Real Madrid we are talking about, and Real Madrid is Real Madrid. I bet a lot of other coaches are eyeing the job and I really don’t know who is going to get it.
“It’s a bit selfish to say it but I hope Pochettino isn’t the next man in charge at the Bernabeu. As a coach he has done an unbelievable job at Spurs, and I want the club to do well.”
The Bulgarian was keen to highlight Spurs’ impressive start to the season and urged Pochettino to start displaying his happiness if he wants to stay with the north London club.
“The stadium is a big issue, as are the Real Madrid rumours, but the important thing is what happens on the pitch and if the team is performing well this is a reason to smile.
“In football sometimes things happen behind closed doors that people don’t see or don’t know about so until the moment when Pochettino says what the real problem is or even if there is a problem – or maybe he was just in a bad mood – we won’t know.