Mauricio Pochettino is being heavily linked with a sensational return to Tottenham Hotspur just 18-months after Daniel Levy sacked the Argentine.
football.london understands that the club have held talks with their former manager and the 49-year is interested in a return to the team he led to the Champions League final in 2019.
Since Pochettino's departure from Spurs, the club have dropped out of the Champions League places and hired and fired Jose Mourinho. Whilst the Argentinian has taken on the Paris Saint-Germain job and won two domestic trophies with the French outfit but not the Ligue 1 title his club covets.
Former Spurs midfielder Andros Townsend was a key player in Pochettino's first season in charge at Tottenham and the England international has raised doubts over the potential return of the manager to the club.
"I don’t think there’s any chance in this world Pochettino goes back to Spurs without Harry Kane. It’s impossible," Townsend told talkSPORT.
"In today’s market, what are you going to get for £150million?"
With Kane alluding to his desire to move away from Spurs, Townsend is not sure Pochettino would be willing to come back to the club without the star striker. However, the 29-year-old has not ruled out a Pochettino return in the future.
"If we were having this conversation in a year’s time, I would believe it. I felt the way Pochettino left, it was kind of on good terms," he said.
"Daniel Levy and he both kind of said they will go their separate ways and will see what happens in the future.
"I think it may be a year too soon. Pochettino hasn’t done what he wanted to do at PSG. Spurs have gone a different route and it’s failed."
The Crystal Palace winger also highlighted the same issues being present at the club that led to Pochetinno's sacking in the first place as a reason why he cannot see the move happening this summer.
"Pochettino left because he asked for a rebuild that wasn’t given to him. Pochettino knew they were going to be 14th," Townsend added.
"He said after the Champions League final ‘we need a rebuild. This club, this team has come to the end of the line. I need a rebuild’.
“I think he told six or seven players he wanted them to go. When you do that and on July 1 they are still there, it’s never going to work out. You’ve got players who know the manager doesn’t want them there.”
