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Pochettino refutes Barcelona links by comparing it to taking Arsenal job

Peter Cziborra / Reuters

If Tottenham supporters had any concern that manager Mauricio Pochettino was set to take the Barcelona job this summer, the Argentine has rejected speculation with a comparison that's sure to warm Spurs cockles.

"I am an Espanyol supporter. If Daniel Levy sacked me in a few years, it would be impossible to manage Arsenal," Pochettino said ahead of Saturday's visit to Burnley, courtesy of Tom Collomosse of the Evening Standard.

By correlating the Barcelona job despite two spells playing with Catalonia rival Espanyol with moving from Tottenham to north London foe Arsenal, Pochettino has dropped a discernible hint about his future.

"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."

Chatter has linked Pochettino with the position Luis Enrique is stepping down from at season's end peaked when the former centre-back crossed paths with Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu in the Catalan capital over the international break. Pochettino, who still owns a home in the city from his Espanyol days, says that meeting was a "coincidence."

"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," Pochettino added.

"We said hello, we spent five minutes together but that was the reality."

After putting pen to paper on an extension in May that is slated to keep Pochettino in the N17 through 2021 - a deal that was signed in conjunction with extensions for much of Tottenham's budding core - the Argentine appears content where he is.

That doesn't mean speculation linking him with one of Europe's marquee jobs will cease, something that Pochettino appears to understand very well after his Bartomeu run-in.

"You know that after that it is impossible to stop the rumours," Pochettino conceded.

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