TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR REFUSED to allow questions about Mauricio Pochettino being linked to the Manchester United manager’s job at a news conference today.
Pochettino has been tipped as the leading candidate to permanently replace Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer appointed on an interim basis following Mourinho’s departure.
The Argentinian manager insisted his sole focus was on Spurs when he faced the media on Tuesday and the club were unwilling to allow him to field similar questions ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash at Everton.
When a reporter attempted to ask a question relating to comments made by Les Reed, who was technical director at Southampton when Pochettino left the club for Tottenham in 2014, he was met with a swift rebuttal from Spurs’ head of communications Simon Felstein.
“We’ve gone over Manchester United and the manager before. Anything to do with Manchester United we’ve heard 48 hours ago. I’m not prepared to have another press conference dominated by this,” he said.
“Your man was here on Tuesday and asked the same questions, so I’m not prepared to have it again. So I’d ask you to move on.”
When the stance was questioned by the reporter, Felstein responded: “With respect, I’m saying move it on. We invite you here to preview a football match and you’re coming in and you’re asking our manager about another job. I’m sorry.”
Awkward 😬
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) December 20, 2018
Mauricio Pochettino's pre-Everton press conference was overshadowed by a dispute between a reporter and the press officer. pic.twitter.com/hvSv8DvVZg
The Tottenham boss was seemingly entertained by the exchange and interjected with a humorous quip.
“You’re going to be the star of the press conference,” Pochettino told Felstein with a smile.
When it was put to Felstein the rumours would continue for months, he added: “Okay, fine. Let people speculate. We’re not having our press conferences dominated by it, there’s plenty else to talk about.”
Speaking on Sky Sports’ Debate programme, Reed said of Pochettino: “He was being courted when we were still playing games and he never lost his focus, worked just as hard. I think he’ll carry on doing that at Spurs.”
Murray Kinsella, Gavan Casey and Andy Dunne preview another big weekend of rugby action and dissect the week’s main talking points.
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Did José die? Calm down, Gary.
@Alan J. McKenna: Agree, would a normal person who lost their job get a 22 million pounds pay off? People need to get real, these people don’t live in our world…
@running man: well it’s not exactly a normal job he was doing was it, what did you expect he’d get 50 quid in an envelope ?
@Stephen Bolger: 50 Euro is more than most get when they
leave a job
Pogba is a useless, self idolizing idiot, who has huge talent but will not use it, move him on asap.
@Martin McKenna: He seemed to use his talent well enough for Juve and France. Then again, he was playing in position.