Ledley King Backs Mauricio Pochettino to Stay at Tottenham
Tottenham legend and Club ambassador, Ledley King, has shared his thoughts on wanting Mauricio Pochettino to stay at Tottenham.
The on-again, off-again situation regarding Mauricio Pochettino’s contract extension has seen Tottenham legend and current Club ambassador, Ledley King, chime in with some thoughts. As of this moment, Pochettino has yet to sign a new deal despite early contract talks happening back on January.
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It’s not that the Argentine manager is hesitant about extending his stay in north London, but it’s mostly down to the fact that he still has three years left on a five-year deal he signed two seasons ago.
Something that he alluded to earlier this month, why asked if he would sign a contract extension (quotes from Ham & High).
“Yes, why not? But in the end you can see that nearly two years ago I signed a five-year contract. There are still three years and three months.”
Again, despite what seems like a slight hesitation, Pochettino is enjoying his stay at Tottenham and feels at home. It’s come to a point that over the course of two years with the club, he can’t imagine a scenario where he would leave for another job.
“Yes because I think you build a new stadium, you start to build the relationship – emotional relationships,” Mauricio Pochettino continued.
“We are a team of people, the money is not the only important thing. The emotional link you create with the people here is important, and sometimes it is difficult to take some decisions. It happened with me at Southampton too – it was difficult to take the decision to come here.”
The reference to Southampton is important to take note of because he left a good situation and had to start over from scratch when he joined Spurs. It’s highly unlikely that Mauricio Pochettino would be keen on starting over for a third time with another Premier League club — or any team for that matter.
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As for Ledley King, here’s what he had to say about Pochettino and wanting him to remain as Tottenham’s manager.
“I hope he stays. We’ve lost our top players in the past which is always difficult to come back from,” King told Omnisport (quotes via FourFourTwo).
“But I believe we have a manager who’ll be around for a long time to develop this group of players. He’s started something he wants to see out and hopefully the players feel the same way.”
“The objective at the start of the season would have been to try to finish in the Champions League spots. But the team has exceeded that. It’s a great position to be in.”
“You can see they enjoy playing together, they have a young, hungry manager. He’s had a huge impact – you can see how comfortable the players are playing with each other. He deserves a lot of credit.”
“The team has a good age, but a lot of maturity, which belies some of the age group. For someone like Dele [Alli] to perform the way he has is unbelievable. The future is really bright. Hopefully we see Tottenham competing for titles for years to come.”
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In a nutshell, Mauricio Pochettino has openly expressed his desire to remain with Tottenham and helping turn Spurs into one of Europe’s elite clubs. But because he still has three more years left on his current deal, the Argentine isn’t in a rush to sign an extension just yet. At the same time, he won’t leave prematurely.
Therefore, it’s a wait-and-see approach for the time being, but it’s almost a given that Pochettino will see the end, or nearly the end of his five-year deal before signing a new long-term contract eventually.