According to several reports, Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte has offered to replace under-fire Mauricio Pochettino at Paris Saint Germain. According to French outlet Le Parisien, the PSG board wants Poch out after failing to deliver on the club’s Champions League ambitions following a last-16 exit to Real Madrid. Conte has reportedly set a list of demands PSG would have to meet if they are to pry the 52-year-old away from North London, starting with doubling his salary.
The Italian is currently on an estimated 17 million euros a year salary at Tottenham but is hoping for around 30 million euros, which would make him one of the highest-paid managers in Europe alongside Diego Simeone. He would also want to work with Gianluca Petrachi as his sporting director and oversee a squad rebuild with several players leaving as part of a summer mass exodus. He has already identified potential transfer targets.
Those are quite some demands, but Conte is a serial title winner. He has proven his craft to be a winning formula everywhere he went, so it raised a few eyebrows when he was announced to take over from Nuno Espirito Santo as Spurs gaffer.
Jose Mourinho was fired after 17 months in charge despite leading his sub-par team to the Carabao cup final, and Conte was expected to bring glory to the North London side with his experience starting with a top-four finish. That has not quite worked out well as Spurs have lost ground to Arsenal, having drawn and lost each of their last two premier league matches.
There is still a chance for a top-four finish as they sit two points behind Arsenal with five games left this season. There is a high probability, if Champions League football eludes the North London side, Antonio Conte might take his winning formula to France, where his main task would be European success.
Pochettino has a year left on his contract. He would reportedly command 12.6 million pounds in compensation if he is sacked by PSG this summer. Zinedine Zidane is also in contention to become PSG’s next head coach. He would be a better fit at the Parc de Princes, seeing how desperate the PSG hierarchy are about European success, but the former Real Madrid man wants the France job instead.
Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy would not stand in Conte’s way if he seeks to move away from England, but PSG have not contacted the Italian yet. Levy could opt to bring back Pochettino, who spent five-and-a-half years in charge of Spurs and finished second in the Premier League twice.
