Former Chelsea manager wants Blues stripped of title - "we broke the rules"

Mauricio Pochettino at the World Cup (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)

Former Chelsea and Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says he feels the Blues should be stripped of their Premier League title win in 2016/17.

The Argentine was in charge of Spurs at that point, with his side finishing second behind Chelsea in the title race that year.

Pochettino later went on to manage Chelsea, and he’s admitted that the fans of the west London giants probably won’t like him for coming out and saying what he’s saying.

Still, Pochettino feels it’s wrong that Chelsea were punished this summer for breaking rules regarding payments to agents between 2009 and 2022, but with no sporting sanction handed out.

Should Chelsea hand 2017 title over to Tottenham?

Pochettino feels that if Chelsea won due to cheating, then it’s only right that the team that finished second is now awarded the title for that season.

“For sure, we [Tottenham] deserve to be champions for that year because we were second best. We should have been awarded it. We should win one title, one Premier League,” Pochettino told the Telegraph.

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“They [Chelsea] were punished, they admitted it, so that’s it. The title should be for the team that was second. It’s not me complaining, it’s the truth. We didn’t compete with the same rules.

“The Chelsea fans will be upset with me because I’m saying this. But if we were at Tottenham and broke the rules, I’d admit the same and say ‘look, we don’t deserve the title because we broke the rules’.”

Mauricio Pochettino open to Tottenham return

Pochettino is still loved by a lot of Tottenham fans, and it’s clear he’s still open to returning there in the future.

The 54-year-old says he was approached last season after the sacking of Thomas Frank, and he hopes the stars will at some point align so that he’s available when they also have a vacancy.

“The problem was that the timings were never the best,” he said. “When I was free, I never received a contact and then when I was working, I received a contact, but I cannot make the decision to come back.

“It was a little bit unlucky. But maybe one day the stars will align and it can happen. If I was free, of course, I would come. But I wasn’t free. I was preparing for the World Cup.”

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