Manager is excited by new US deal but might have returned to Spurs if the stars had aligned and does not rule out taking England job one day

If things had worked out differently, Mauricio Pochettino would have gone back to his beloved Tottenham over the summer. They had put in the call and it stirred him. Nothing was going to put him off – not even the possibility of the club being in the Championship.

Seriously, Mauricio? After a World Cup campaign with the United States and top jobs with Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain before that, he would have been willing to start a new chapter in the second tier of English football? “Yes, of course,” Pochettino says. “Tottenham … it’s the only club that always I am open to help. In whatever division.”