Leeds United made contact with Mauricio Pochettino over a stunning move to Elland Road, according to Guillem Balague.
What’s Balague had to say about Leeds and Pochettino?
The Whites are currently on their fourth head coach of the season in Sam Allardyce, following on from Jesse Marsch, Michael Skubala and Javi Gracia.
Leeds find themselves in real danger of relegation from the Premier League and have just two games remaining to get out of the bottom three in what has been another disappointing campaign in Yorkshire.
After sacking Marsch back in February, it took Leeds a number of weeks to bring in a new manager, and it appears as if Pochettino, who has been out of work since leaving Paris Saint-Germain in July, was on the radar.
Balague was speaking about Pochettino in a column for the BBC ahead of his proposed move to Stamford Bridge.
He stated that Leeds, along with Aston Villa, Athletic Bilbao, Benfica, Nice, Nottingham Forest, Sevilla and Villarreal all got in contact over moves for the 51-year-old. Pochettino wasn’t short of offers and even initially turned down Chelsea until he was offered more control by Todd Boehly.
Never likely…
Pochettino looks set to return to the dugout ahead of the 2023/24 season at Chelsea, and you could argue that Leeds were dreaming when thinking he may be tempted to make the move to Elland Road.
The Argentine, who plays an attacking 4-3-3 formation, is close to 600 games as a manager and has been used to European football with Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain.
Hailed as “world-class” in the media, Pochettino has been linked with some of the biggest clubs in the world such as Real Madrid, a job he was reportedly holding out for. However, it looks as if he will move to Chelsea, who appear to be building for the future with a €1bn+ valued playing squad, as per Transfermarkt.
Meanwhile, Leeds appear to be a side heading in the opposite direction and could find themselves in the second tier next season, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise to hear they were unsuccessful after contacting Pochettino, presumably earlier in the year.
It will be interesting to see who Leeds target in the summer to replace their current interim head coach, but relegation over the coming weeks could change those plans drastically, with Feyenoord’s Arne Slot thought to be a target after leading his side to the Eredivisie title.