Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says in an interview with BBC Sport that he “misses” the Premier League and would like to return sometime in the future. Pochettino, who is currently preparing for the 2026 World Cup as head coach of co-hosts the United States, has had three different spells in the English top flight.
The Argentine manager moved to Southampton after leaving Espanyol, then took over Spurs, whom he led to the Champions League final in 2019, and went on to manage Chelsea.
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“Of course I miss it. I am so happy in America, but I am also thinking about returning to the Premier League one day. It is the most competitive league.”
Aside from an 18-month stint at Paris St-Germain, where the club won Ligue 1 and the French Cup, his critics point to the lack of trophies on his CV. It is clear from speaking to Pochettino that this particularly rankles from his time at Tottenham.
The 53-year-old spent five years at Spurs between 2014 and 2019, guiding the north London club to a second-place finish in the 2016-17 Premier League season, the EFL Cup final in 2015, and the final of Europe’s elite club competition.
“I think we were so close at Tottenham, we nearly touched it [winning the Champions League and Premier League]. That is something I want to achieve,” added Pochettino, who remains in contact with the man who sacked him, Daniel Levy.
Levy, 63, surprisingly left his role as executive chairman at Tottenham in September after 24 years. During that period, the club won the EFL Cup in 2008 and the Europa League in 2025, and also moved into a new stadium.
“I was very surprised [by Levy’s departure]. His legacy is there. It is amazing what he did for the club,” Pochettino added.
“My relationship with him was always good. During my time at Tottenham and after I left.”
“He was a very important person because he gave me the opportunity to manage a club like Tottenham. For me, it is one of the best clubs in the world, with a fantastic fanbase.”
‘The language of football is universal’
In September 2024, Pochettino was given the challenge of leading the United States into a World Cup they will co-host with Canada and Mexico.
Yet not everything has gone smoothly.
Pochettino has won 11 of his 20 matches at the helm, and defeats to the likes of Mexico (twice), Panama, Canada, Turkey, Switzerland, and South Korea have drawn criticism.
He has also, according to reports in The Times, faced issues around changing the culture and mindset of his players and has been unhappy about arriving at home matches only to find that, according to Talksport, the visiting supporters significantly outnumber the American fans.
And all this has happened while he adapts to the different demands placed on a national team manager.
“The intensity is completely different because you need to arrive for a few days to prepare for the game and play, prepare for another game, play, and then go back,” Pochettino continued.
“After November, we are going to have three months until March to prepare for another game. In a national team, you are desperate to coach the players.”
“You feel empty because after the second game you cannot communicate and you cannot keep working on improving things.”
The United States has only reached the World Cup quarter-finals on one occasion, in 2002.
MLS was formed in 1995, one year after the USA hosted the 1994 World Cup, and has improved and grown significantly since then, with Lionel Messi’s arrival in 2023 being evidence of a changed landscape.
“I think players like Messi are helping the kids; not only when the kids want to play basketball or American football or baseball, they now also want to play soccer,” added Pochettino, who stressed that his employers have told him to use the term ‘soccer’ instead of ‘football’ to avoid public confusion.
He added: “The motivation is massive. Sometimes you feel that people don’t understand too much.”
“You find some coaches who say, ‘oh you know, you need to know the American player’s culture’. I say, ‘No, I know the most important thing – the culture of football and soccer. We need to translate the culture of football to the American player’.”
“I think after one year we are making great progress. We are building [ideas] with people that the language of football is only one, and that it doesn’t matter if you are American, Brazilian, or English. Our football is about competing in the way you need to compete, if you want to win.”
