Mauricio Pochettino refuses to rule out Barcelona job; former Tottenham boss regrets 'farm' comments

Mauricio Pochettino has revealed his regret over how he ruled out the possibility of coaching Barcelona, admitting "in life you never know what will happen".

The Argentinian is currently out of work after he was sacked by Tottenham in November 2019 - six months after leading the club to the Champions League final.

At the peak of his reign at Spurs, Pochettino was wanted by both Real Madrid and Barcelona but pledged his future to the club by signing a new contract.

Having both played for Espanyol and started his managerial career there, Pochettino declared back in 2018 he would rather "work on a farm in Argentina" than take a job with their Catalan rivals.

But the 48-year-old has admitted he would "say things differently" if he could go back and hinted he will not close the door on Barcelona, amid uncertainty surrounding Quique Setien's future at Camp Nou.

"I was in Barcelona that year and I met [Barcelona president Jose Maria] Bartomeu in a bar," he told El Pais.

"We greeted each other because we were taking the children to the same school and we were talking for five minutes.

"That generated a rumour that set off alarms because there were more teams that wanted us, and when they asked me [about taking the Barcelona job] I wanted to settle it drastically.

"I did not want to disrespect Barcelona. You can say things differently.

"Espanyol has made a name for me, but I'm not arrogant and I didn't like making a statement like that.

"Maybe now I wouldn't because in life you never know what will happen."

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