Earlier this year, when Luis Enrique announced he would resign as Barcelona manager at the end of the season, reports emerged inevitably linking Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino with the soon-to-be available job at Camp Nou.
That seems a long time ago now, and Pochettino is expected to remain as Spurs manager next season. But last month, Italian publication Calciomercato suggested Tottenham would be interested in appointing current Juventus manager Max Allegri if Pochettino was to leave.
Allegri has also been linked with Arsenal, and is bound to be touted for the Barcelona job himself after his Juventus side thrashed the La Liga giants 3-0 in Tuesday night’s Champions League quarter-final first leg.
It’s very unlikely we’ll be seeing Allegri at Spurs any time soon. But, speaking to BT Sport ahead of the Juventus-Barcelona game, journalist James Horncastle — an expert on Italian football — claimed Allegri was close to landing the Tottenham job before Daniel Levy appointed Mauricio Pochettino.
Interesting line frim @JamesHorncastle: Allegri close to taking over Spurs before Poch landed job
— The Spurs Report (@spurs_report) 11 April 2017
At the time, Louis van Gaal was the bookies’ favourite to become Spurs’ new manager, but he ended up at Manchester United and Levy lured Pochettino from Southampton.
Most Tottenham supporters are more than happy with Pochettino at the helm, but it’s fascinating to think about what could have been.
Sometime good things comes from bad !