No sooner have Tottenham Hotspur been dumped out of the Champions League than news of a potential managerial change at White Hart Lane has made its way into the news.
According to talkSPORT, Spurs are ‘increasingly likely’ to move on from the Antonio Conte era, which would mean looking for a new manager in the summer.
The same outlet also suggest that former manager, Mauricio Pochettino, has let it be known he’s open to a return, albeit he’s likely to be in high demand.
The Guardian name Thomas Tuchel as a possible successor to the Italian, whilst The Independent have Thomas Frank, Marco Silva and Luis Enrique as potential candidates to take the north Londoners to the next level.
It seems obvious why supporters of the club, and maybe even some players, would want to see the Argentine return.
Unlike Conte’s defensive, some would say boring style, Pochettino had Spurs playing at their swashbuckling best and only a poor performance in the final stopped his side winning the 2019 Champions League against Liverpool.
It could also be argued that Harry Kane could be persuaded to stay at the club if his old mentor got his feet back under the table.
However, the cliche that you should ‘never go back’ rings true in this instance.
The Tottenham of today isn’t the same one that Pochettinho left, and it’ll take some while for him to restore harmony and get the squad playing anywhere close to what he would demand.
Furthermore, despite the lovely football he didn’t win anything at the club either, so arguably it’s a backward step in that sense.
Just because Pochettino knows the club, it doesn’t necessarily follow that success is guaranteed.
If Spurs want to move forward then they need to haul themselves out of the past.