Mauricio Pochettino a huge fan of reported Tottenham target Donny van de Beek

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Donny van de Beek was nearly Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League slayer last season. He scored the only goal in the opening leg of their Champions League semi-final which looked like knocking Spurs out until Lucas Moura completed Tottenham’s sensational comeback in the Johan Cruyff ArenA. 

Now, as reported by Football.London, it has emerged that Tottenham have ‘made tentative enquiries’ regarding the potential transfer of £47 million-rated Van de Beek over the past 12 months. 

However, Tottenham would seem to have an uphill task when it comes to signing the Dutchman. As reported by De Telegraaf in December last year, as relayed by AS, the midfielder is not keen on the prospect of working under Jose Mourinho. He is instead said to be waiting on a move to the Bernabeu. 

If Mauricio Pochettino was still in charge at Tottenham, you wonder if that might have been a different story. 

The Argentine was a huge fan of the Dutchman. As reported by El Pais last May, Pochettino hailed Van de Beek as the star of an Ajax side which contained the likes of Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong and Hakim Ziyech. 

 “Van de Beek. Nobody talks much about him. But he has a dynamic in the game, he gets behind Tadic, he arrives, he works, he scores goals.

“Logically, I love De Jong and De Ligt. But the example of the operation of this Ajax is Van de Beek. I like very much. They have a young player, from the academy, in each line, that shows what the team is.”

Unfortunately, that famous night in Amsterdam was perhaps the last highlight of Pochettino’s time at Tottenham. He was sacked in November and replaced by Mourinho. With that, Tottenham’s chances of signing Van de Beek might have also disappeared. 

Instead, it looks more likely that Van de Beek will be on his way to Real Madrid. Tottenham fans will no doubt be disappointed if they do fail to secure the signing of a player Pochettino was such a big fan of.