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Football London
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Alasdair Gold & Lee Wilmot

What Mauricio Pochettino has said about Juventus and Paulo Dybala amid job speculation

Maurizio Sarri has been sacked as manager of Juventus.

The Old Lady were knocked out of the Champions League at the last 16 stage by Lyon on Friday night, with two Cristiano Ronaldo goals unable to see Juve through.

The French side led 1-0 from the first leg, way back in March, and went 2-0 up with an early goal in the Allianz Stadium.

Ronaldo's two goals gave the home side hope, but it was not enough as they went out on away goals.

And less than 24 hours later, Sarri, who guided the club to the Serie A title, was sacked.

Alasdair Gold and Rob Guest talk Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Ledley King and Tanguy Ndombele

That has led to great speculation over who will replace him, with many in England putting Mauricio Pochettino's name forward as the leading candidate.

Pochettino has been out of work since being sacked by Tottenham in November, but has spoken candidly about Juventus before.

The Argentinian's future was always up for debate during his time as Spurs boss, with the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid linked with poaching him.

He was even linked with Juve after Massimiliano Allegri left the club, but was ultimately loyal to Spurs until a run of poor results this season left chairman Daniel Levy with no option but to sack him.

Spurs were beaten by Juventus in the Champions league in 2017/18 and Pochettino was asked about the Italian giants and potentially managing them in the future then.

Pochettino said: "I think Juventus is a top club, a massive club. We cannot compare with Juventus. Juventus' history, they won everything in the last three seasons. Juventus arrived in two Champions League finals.

"I think it's impossible to compare the history of the two clubs. Of course our dream is to reach the level of Juventus

"I'm so happy to be here [in Italy], first time in 45 years. I always hear about Turin and ..... my small town where my grand-grand-grandfather made the trip from Argentina. I'm so excited."

There are also the links with Paulo Dybala. Spurs tried to sign the Argentinian forward last summer but issues with third party ownership of image rights stopped the deal happening.

On Dybala, Pochettino said: "Dybala is a great player. He's Argentinean. Of course, the formation of Juventus is a little bit different when playing with Dybala and not playing with Dybala. He's that type of player, like Messi, Neymar and Cristiano. They have the capacity to give to the team a different option.

"Of course, it's difficult for Juventus because Dybala is a fantastic player, but there's a lot of players than can play and maybe they change a little bit. Of course we've watched a lot of games with and without Dybala. It's about the quality of the players on the pitch."

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