• Premier League

Pochettino in advanced talks with Tottenham

Mauricio Pochettino's Southampton finished two league places below Tottenham © AP

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Southampton boss Mauricio Pochettino is in advanced talks with Tottenham to become the north London club's next manager, according to reports.

Pochettino has been linked with the role at Spurs for some time and it appears the wheels are in now motion for the Argentinian to succeed Tim Sherwood.

Sherwood, who had been appointed as a replacement for Andre Villas-Boas in December on an 18-month contract, was sacked earlier this month after guiding Tottenham to a sixth-placed finish in the Barclays Premier League.

Pochettino's Southampton side ended up two places below Tottenham in eighth. When he took over at the south-coast outfit in January 2013, they had already made impressive progress in a short space of time.

And that has continued under the 42-year-old, whose own reputation has grown considerably. Coming in as a relative unknown to English football and in what were widely regarded as controversial circumstances with regard to the dismissal of his predecessor Nigel Adkins, Pochettino was soon making a name for himself as his team defeated Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea towards the end of the 2012/13 season.

Southampton - only promoted to the Premier League the previous summer - finished 14th that term and have bettered that markedly in 2013/14 with a side full of English talent that have drawn plenty of plaudits.

It has seen Pochettino's list of admirers increase and talk of Tottenham being among them has only intensified as time has gone on.

After his side had concluded their campaign by drawing 1-1 at home with Manchester United - taking the Saints to 56 points, their highest-ever Premier League haul - on May 11, Pochettino refused to be drawn on speculation linking him with Tottenham.

He said: ''I want to say that I still have one more year on my contract.

''It is only normal that these rumours will start cropping up. We know the rules with how these things happen in England.

''Tomorrow we (he and Southampton) will sit down and we will talk. This is the end of a five-year project, we have achieved what we wanted from this project and now a new project has to start.

''I have said that this club now deserves to be in a new project, the board has to decide how that happens, two years, three years or four years - I just want to sit down and talk and we will see what happens.''

Prior to getting the Southampton job, Pochettino was in charge of Spanish side Espanyol, his first management role.

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