Paris Saint-Germain sporting director Leonardo reportedly thinks Spurs are using their pursuit of Mauricio Pochettino to distract from Harry Kane’s transfer situation.
Kane is reported to have told Tottenham that he wants to leave this summer transfer window and was keen for his future to be sorted before the European Championship begins in a couple of weeks.
That always looked unlikely, not least because Spurs will not let their star man, who is under contract for another three years, go without a fight, but also because of the short timeframe.
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The timing of the leak from Kane’s camp over his desire to leave his boyhood club was surprising given it will almost certainly drag on over the summer and possibly provide a distraction to England’s Euro 2020 campaign.
On top of that, Spurs have continued their search for a new manager with numerous names linked with position, including Antonio Conte, Graham Potter, Scott Parker, Nuno Espirito Santo and many more.
A report on Sunday claimed that Pochettino had reportedly told PSG that he wishes to leave this summer after just six months in charge as Spurs and Real Madrid consider moves.
Pochettino has been heavily linked over the past week with a return to Spurs where he was in charge for five successful yet ultimately trophyless years.
However, another report yesterday said that the Spurs hierarchy want a ‘low maintenance’ appointment who ‘would require cheap or zero compensation’ which could rule Pochettino and Conte out of the job.
And now Le Parisien (via Sport Witness) claims that Pochettino is ‘currently on vacation’ in London and will have ‘undoubtedly responded’ to the advances from Spurs and Real Madrid, who were also managerless until yesterday.
But Pochettino’s future at PSG ‘really seems to be written’ with the former Espanyol boss discussing new signings with Leonardo.
The report adds that Leonardo – who won 55 caps for Brazil during his playing career – reckons Spurs are using the rumours about Pochettino’s return as a ‘diversion’ away from speculation over Kane’s future.
However, French football expert Philippe Auclair has claimed that Leonardo’s relationship with Pochettino is “irredeemably broken”.
“The relationship between Mauricio Pochettino and Leonardo is basically irredeemably broken,” Auclair told talkSPORT.
“So, there cannot be a situation in which Pochettino stays and Leonardo stays, that’s where we are at the moment.
“There have been some very heated exchanges between the two and Pochettino has not exactly appreciated the fact that a lot of the affairs of the team have been overseen by Leonardo, including contracts extensions.
“At the same time, Leonardo has been on French radio telling that Pocehttino still had two years to run on his contract, which came as a surprise to everybody as we thought he’d signed an 18 month contract in December, so had one year left. But apparently there might have been an extension clause that was triggered.
“But, after what happened last week when you had two former PSG managers win the Champions League and the Europa League, I’m not absolutely sure Leonardo is perhaps in the best of positions to have any problems with these Qatari owners, who are really the ones pulling the strings.
“It would not have escaped their attention that the manager Leonardo fell out with so spectacularly after he took them to the Champions League final [Thomas Tuchel] went back to that final and won it with another team, which does not have stars like Neymar and Kylian Mbappe in its ranks.
“So you shouldn’t think Leonardo has got such an incredibly good relationship with the owners that he is going to survive any of this crisis – this is not the case.”
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