Mauricio Pochettino reveals just how close he came to leaving Spurs last season

Mauricio Pochettino has admitted he’d have considered leaving Tottenham Hotspur at the end of last season had they won the Champions League final.

Spurs reached the final of Europe’s premier competition for the first time in their history after a remarkable semi-final comeback win over Ajax in May.

Pochettino’s Spurs future: Five key things to know…

• Pochettino has been in charge of Spurs since 2014.
• He has won 55.8% of his 276 games since then.
• He has consistently been linked with the likes of Spurs and Man Utd.
• But the Argentine is yet to win a trophy in north London.
• Pochettino admitted he may have left Spurs if they had won last month’s Champions League final.

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But the Lilywhites fell 2-0 to Liverpool in a disappointing final, prompting Pochettino – speaking at his first press conference of Spurs’ pre-season tour of Singapore – to remain at White Hart Lane and continue working toward winning silverware with Spurs.

“Of course it’s always in your head. You never know,” he told reporters when asked if he thought about leaving Spurs.

“With the way I am, I am always going to prioritise the club over myself. Maybe if it was a different result after the final you can think, ‘OK, maybe this is a moment to leave the club and give them the possibility of a real new chapter with a new coaching staff.’

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“But after the final, I felt this was not great to finish like this. I’m not a person that avoids facing problems or a difficult situation. I am more on the [other] side: I love a massive challenge and of course now [we must] rebuild that mentality to make it possible to repeat a similar season. That is exciting and motivates me a lot.”

Pochettino’s quest to deliver Spurs’ first trophy since the 2008 League Cup will be helped by the £55.5m arrival of Tanguy Ndombele from Lyon – the club’s first signing since Lucas Moura in January 2018.

The Argentinian will, however, be on the hunt for a new right-back after allowing Kieran Trippier to leave for Atletico Madrid for £20m, leaving only Serge Aurier and the unproven Kyle Walker-Peters to step into that position.

Spurs kick off their pre-season preparations with a friendly tie against Juventus on Sunday.