Pochettino dismisses Barca links

Mauricio Pochettino has suggested that he could never manager Barcelona because of his ties with Espanyol.

Barcelona are on the lookout for a new manager following Luis Enrique's decision to leave the Nou Camp at the end of the season with Pochettino one of those linked with the vacancy.

Speculation about a possible move to the Nou Camp intensified when it emerged that he had met with Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu during the international break, but the Argentine insists the meeting was 'a coincidence'.

Indeed, the former Espanyol manager believes taking over at the Nou Camp would be like taking over at Arsenal following his spell at Tottenham.

"I am an Espanyol supporter. If Daniel Levy sacked me in a few years, it would be impossible to manage Arsenal," Pochettino told reporters on Thursday.

“In football it is difficult to keep values like loyalty but to me loyalty and honesty come before being a manager or a player. I am an Espanyol fan and I love Espanyol. Now I am at Tottenham it would be impossible for me to move to Arsenal one day.”

When asked about his meeting with Bartomeu, Pochettino added: "It was a coincidence in a bar in Barcelona last Tuesday. I have known him for a long time, before he became president of Barcelona. There were many people around us.

"We said hello, we spent five minutes together but that was the reality. You know that after that it is impossible to stop the rumours."

The BoxNation Channel is now part of the eir Sport pack on satellite , eir vision and the eir Sport App.