Mauricio Pochettino hasn't ruled himself out of Real Madrid job but he's NOT high on their wishlist – Daily Mail, Daily Mail

Mauricio Pochettino could have walked into theReal Madridjob at the end of the 2017 – 18 season if he had wanted to. Leaving Spurs for the Bernabeu now would be a far more difficult manoeuvre.

As ever the club have a wanted list at the ready in case the revolving door on the manager’s office at Valdebebas spins around again. Right now though, Pochettino’s name would be some way down it.

The respect remains but he would be coming as a losing coach who has already waved away their advances once before.

Madrid’s brief love affair with Poch in 2018 hit the rocks shortly after it started when the club were surprised to learn that he had not negotiated a release clause in his contract with Daniel Levy in a renewal just a few weeks before.

When Zidane quit in May 2018 Pochettino was candidate number one on Florentino Perez’s list of coaches. He hadn’t won anything but he was seen as just as young and dynamic as Zidane and he had declared on more than one occasion that he would ‘like to manage Madrid one day’.

Speaking at a book presentation in Barcelona in the midst of Madrid’s pursuit of his services he made some of the right noises. Asked if it would take a brave man to take the job he said: ‘They have great players. So you can say that but I would say totally the opposite.

‘When Madrid call you, you have to listen. Although in this case it doesn’t depend on me. I have just signed a long contract at Tottenham and I’m very happy there. ‘

The problem was that contract. Madrid would have gladly paid for him to leave but with no clause that was going to be impossible.

They would have to negotiate with Daniel Levy – something they had found difficult in the past trying to get Gareth Bale and Luka Modric, and not worth even trying when it came to Harry Kane.

Not only was there no clause but Pochettino also made it clear he was happy at Tottenham adding: ‘They let me work and we are growing together as a group. Now I want to focus on planning the next season, and keep a distance from everything that is being talked about. ‘

When it was put to him that it was surely impossible to turn Madrid down. He replied: ‘You may think so? But you are not me. ‘

He ended that season in the Champions League which might have stiffened Madrid’s resolve to get him but Tottenham’s disappointing performance in the final failed to spark the imagination of supporters and by then they had Zidane back.

Zidane is currently teetering between Champions League group stage elimination and domestic domination.

After Real Madrid were beaten 3-0 in Paris it seemed he could be going sooner rather than later but it was the out-of-work pair Jose Mourinho and Massimiliano Allegri who emerged as leading candidates and not Pochettino.

If Zidane keeps up Real Madrid’s league form then he could keep the job until the end of the season even if the team exit the Champions League early. A Spanish title might even convince everyone that he should stay beyond 2020.

If change does come before then Madrid will either look again to their former manager Mourinho who seems to provoke strong feelings for an against, Allegri, or an ex-player.

Xabi Alonso is impressing at Real Sociedad’s youth academy and Raul is cutting his teeth with the Real Madrid B team. Pochettino has won no more than those two rookie managers and a lot less than the Italian and the Portuguese.

Him having won nothing is not enough to rule him out of the running but it is enough for him to need to flaunt himself to Madrid in a way he did not do in the summer of 2018.

The old idiom that the train to Madrid only passes once and if you don’t climb aboard it’s gone forever is often not true. Arsene Wenger was sounded out on three different occasions about the Madrid job.

But while Pochettino might not have ruled himself out of the running forever, he has worked himself into a position whereby, even in the event of another Madrid crisis the club would still see hiring him as them doing him a favor, as opposed to the other way around.