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Mauricio Pochettino has opened up about why he feels "really sad" regarding the current situation at Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs are locked in a battle to avoid relegation from the Premier League, with four fixtures remaining to secure their top-flight survival.

Pochettino spent five years at the helm at Tottenham, steering the club to the Champions League final in 2019 before his exit just a few months afterwards. The 54-year-old has since had stints at Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, and currently serves as head coach of the United States men's national team heading into this summer's World Cup across the Atlantic.

Tottenham claimed their first Premier League win of 2026 last weekend with a narrow 1-0 triumph at bottom side Wolves, and they return to top-flight action on Sunday when they face high-flying Aston Villa. Spurs currently languish in 18th place in the standings, sitting two points adrift of safety.

Pochettino has spoken honestly about his time at Tottenham, as well as his exit from the club, as Spurs fight to avoid dropping into the Championship. "It's really sad, I really love Tottenham, it's going to be a part of my life, an important part of my life as a coach, a personal life too," Pochettino said on the latest episode of Stick to Football.

"It's really sad because I know how the people are suffering there, inside the club and also the fans. It's difficult to accept, but the moment when we left, what I told to the media and what I told internally was my feeling and my vision. You need to talk during the day that you are there. When you left or when you are sad or when you decide to move again, I think it's not time to talk. If you talk, things for me are not right.

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"But I think when I was there, I tried to explain what was my vision. We were in a situation that was amazing because I think the training ground, we finished the training ground, we finished the stadium, we moved to Wembley to play, to Milton Keynes to play many games. At the same time, we were very competitive.

"But this idea of how it can affect the environment and the people outside and the people that make the decision inside... It's one title, it's one to win a FA Cup, it's to win a Carabao Cup.

"It's a shame. We were winning every season because with all the circumstances that we were fighting, we spent 18 months with no one signing. That was a record in the Premier League. We had money to spend but not the type of money to improve, to be close to win or to challenge. We challenged, we challenged to win. But we missed this last step."

Pochettino has long been linked with a return to Spurs and proceeded to provide insight on what he looks for when presented with the opportunity to manage a club, including on how his tenure at Tottenham first transpired. He said: "It was difficult. Now it's difficult to talk about that because it was a really, really difficult situation. Because one of the things that I always like is if someone offers me a project, the possibility to coach, I want to know the reality.

"I want to know what they expect from me. I want to know what I need to do, which is the reality of the club. And I think what happened in Tottenham is that I understood what they expected from me, from the beginning.

"Of course it was tough, but I think I cannot complain. Only what I wanted to tell them is to say, 'OK, that is the idea, that is the strategy, the philosophy of the culture that we were creating there'. But if we wanted to be competitive, we need some time to make different decisions.

"The problem is when the assessment is not coming from inside to the club, and the assessment comes from outside. And when people start to intoxicate things and say, no, you should win with this team."