"I miss the world of football in England." Mauricio Pochettino didn't say it by accident. The USMNT manager told L'Équipe exactly what the footballing world — and Tottenham in particular — needed to hear, and the timing couldn't be more loaded.
His contract with the US expires after this summer's World Cup. Spurs are in freefall under interim boss Igor Tudor, whose position grows shakier by the week. The dots aren't hard to join.
Tudor's grip is loosening
Sunday's defeat — coming off what felt like genuine momentum from a draw at Anfield and a 3-2 win over Atlético Madrid — exposed how fragile things still are at the club. Pochettino described England as the place where "you have to constantly give your best" and where anyone with a competitive spirit goes to "test their abilities." It reads less like nostalgia and more like a man advertising his availability.
Tudor won't be in the dugout beyond this summer regardless. The club confirmed his father Mario passed away this week, which is why he wasn't available for post-match duties — a genuinely difficult moment that makes the surrounding noise about his future feel particularly uncomfortable. Still, Spurs have games to play and a relegation battle that is no longer theoretical.
The Telegraph has Pochettino as a frontrunner to take over permanently at the end of the season, alongside Roberto De Zerbi, with the caveat that De Zerbi's interest depends on Spurs still being a Premier League club come August. That's not a given right now.
What this means beyond the sentiment
A Pochettino return would shift Spurs from a chaotic rebuild into something with actual identity and direction — he built the last genuinely coherent era at the club. The market would respond. A team with clear managerial leadership, even one currently hovering too close to the drop zone, looks very different to one lurching from crisis to crisis.
The catch: he won't walk out on the USMNT before the World Cup, and nobody serious is asking him to. This is a post-tournament conversation. What he's done is make sure everyone knows which direction he's leaning when that conversation starts.
"I love the country, its culture, the football culture." He said it out loud. That's the biggest hint he can give without formally handing in his notice.
