Former Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has admitted that he would have loved taking the Arsenal managerial role had it been offered to him. He also admitted his love for ‘love’ for former club Tottenham.

It is worth highlighting that the 47-year-old was removed as the Spurs boss on 19 November after a sub-par start to the season. Jose Mourinho replaced him the following day

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Although he had returned to Argentina soon after, he declared earlier this month that he would be willing to making a quick return to the managerial role if he is offered an apt role.

After Unai Emery was sacked by Arsenal, Pochettino was linked with that empty position for a brief period but now it has been confirmed that Mikel Arteta will be their new head coach.

“When I say I am open, I am open. I cannot say that I am open but I’m closed to someone,” he said as quoted by The Mirror.

“It’s different if you receive an approach and you listen and say yes or no. That’s different.

“But you can’t say that I’m open but on that I am not open. You are open and then you are open. Anything can happen. When I say I am open, I am open to listen to any club,” he added.

“To be honest, I don’t read too much. I’m lucky now because I have [assistant] Jesus Perez with me and he reads it all for me.

“Of course I love the Premier League, the English fans and if not the best, it’s one of the best leagues in the world and for any manager it’s very exciting to be involved in the Premier League.

“But it’s not just the Premier League, there’s other leagues, different clubs which can be exciting and can give you a challenge that is maybe different,” he added.

To his credit, Pochettino had guided the Spurs to four successive top-four finishes in the English Premier League and then to their first Champions League final earlier in the year.

Tottenham Chairman Daniel Levy earlier in the week suggested that Pochettino could maybe return to Tottenham for a second spell later and Pochettino too did not rule out that possibility.

“Look at what happened with Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid – there’s plenty of examples and the most important thing is when you finish the relationships remain in a very good way and my love for Tottenham goes on,” he said.

“You feel that always from the fans, you feel the love and in football you never know. The same coaches or managers one day leave and then go back, different presidents, different times. Now it’s not in my hands, it’s in another person’s hands.

“We need to move on and of course you have different motivations and challenges in our life and we have to make sure we have the right energy to attack the new challenge and try to achieve all the new things that people expect from you,” he concluded.