Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou has jokingly warned Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino not to expect a guard of honour when he returns to North London on Monday evening.
Pochettino will take his Blues side to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for a blockbuster London derby in gameweek 11, which will see him face Spurs as opposition manager for the first time since his sacking in 2019.
During a celebrated five-year spell in the Lilywhites hotseat, Pochettino oversaw the club's transformation into title challengers and regular Champions League contenders, culminating in a runners-up finish in the 2018-19 European top-flight campaign.
Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Son Heung-min among others honed their craft under the Argentine, who also led Tottenham to a club-high 86 points in the 2016-17 Premier League season, where they finished as runners-up to Chelsea.
However, Pochettino failed to end Tottenham's lengthy trophy drought, and only a few months after guiding the club to the Champions League showpiece, he lost his job amid a dismal spell of form.
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After leaving Spurs with a record of 159 wins in 293 matches, a brief stint at Paris Saint-Germain followed for Pochettino, who was in charge of Les Parisiens from January 2021 to May 2022 and won the Ligue 1 title in the 2021-22 season.
More Champions League heartache led to the 50-year-old exiting the Parc des Princes, and he has since overseen a mixed start to the 2023-24 campaign as Graham Potter's Chelsea successor, winning six, drawing three and losing four of his opening 13 games.
Pochettino largely masterminded Tottenham's surge up the rankings at White Hart Lane and Wembley, and he was given the boot by Daniel Levy just seven months after the opening of their new stadium.
The Argentine has been told not to expect his former players to line up in applause for his homecoming, but Postecoglou nevertheless hailed his counterpart's "unquestioned" work in North London.
"It's undoubted that he had an unbelievable impact on this football club. For all of us that's our ultimate goal," football.london quotes Postecoglou as saying in his pre-game press conference.
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"He had an undeniable impact on this club. His work is unquestioned. People I speak to here who worked with him can't speak highly enough about him.
"I can't imagine there will be anything but respect for Mauricio from the people at this club and the fans. He's not going to get a guard of honour or anything because we want to win the game and he won't expect that, but there will be respect for him."
Pochettino's Tottenham exit preceded the largely forgettable reigns of Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte, but Postecoglou is already off to a record-breaking start in North London.
The former Celtic boss has taken 26 points from his first 10 games at the helm, more than any other manager in Premier League history, and Tottenham hold a two-point lead over Manchester City and Arsenal at the summit of the table as a result.
Prior to facing the media, Postecoglou also gave the latest on Destiny Udogie and Ben Davies's injuries ahead of Monday's headline encounter.
Ben Knapton
