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Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has been in contact with Juventus for the past three weeks as he bids to become the Italian club’s new head coach, according to Tuttomercatoweb.

What’s the word?

The Italian giants are on the lookout for a new boss after it was confirmed that Massimiliano Allegri would leave the club at the conclusion of the Serie A season.

Juve, of course, have already won the title – they sit 11 points clear of second-placed Napoli with a single game of the campaign remaining – but they were eliminated from the Champions League by Ajax at the quarter-final stage.

The Italian outlet claims that the Old Lady have been in talks with Pochettino over the past few weeks, with the Argentine having claimed that he could leave north London after the Champions League final, particularly if Spurs win. They play Liverpool in Madrid on June 1.

The report also states that Juventus are ready to offer him a contract worth €12million (£10.5m) per year. That equates to roughly £202,000-per-week.

Pochettino has a clause in his contract that allows him to enter negotiations with other clubs, but it currently stands at €40m (£35m) and Tuttomercatoweb state that he will ask chairman Daniel Levy to allow him to leave for free.

A ruinous prospect

It is understandable that Juventus would want Pochettino.

He has transformed a beleaguered Tottenham team into Champions League finalists and Premier League contenders and could complete one of the greatest European triumphs of all time in just a couple of weeks.

But the finances of this deal simply don’t add up for Spurs.

The prospect of missing out on the money that would surely be needed to replace him is unthinkable and one cannot imagine Levy countenancing such a move.

Indeed, it would be ruinous for the project that Spurs are building; Pochettino is absolutely central to the club’s ethos and to their recruitment policy.

It would be hard to begrudge him walking off into the sunset if they won the Champions League but to see him potentially head to Juve, for what amounts to be a free transfer, would be genuinely sickening for many Spurs fans.