Real Madrid continues to chew on the blow caused by the departure of Zinedine Zidane from the white bench and, at the same time, studying the options to replace French. There are several candidates that Madrid has proposed, starting with an Allegri who knew about the white interest, but who chose the security of a Juventus that he already knows well. LThen Conte, Xabi Alonso, Raúl … and Pochettino came out. The Argentine was the last to enter the pools, but he went straight to the top, it is the option that pleases the most within Madrid, but he continues to see himself with a certain distance for obvious reasons: he is not without a team.
The Argentine is still the PSG coach, at least for now. It has been published in France that his harmony with Leonardo, sports director of the Parisian club, is nil, and the results obtained by PSG this course (he took over the team in the middle of the campaign) have not been good: he lost in the semifinals of the Champions League and finished second in the Ligue 1, after Lille. Likewise, information has come from England about his anger at the PSG project, which apparently would include the option of transferring Mbappé to Real Madrid this summer in order to focus everything on the figure of Neymar, who has just been renewed.
What Madrid is clear about is that he will not go to war for Pochettino, it is not contemplated to try to get PSG to free him to take over the white bench, neither paying compensation nor without doing so. At the white club they are aware that taking care of relations with Paris Saint Germain is vital to try to get him to agree to sell Mbappé this summer, the last one before ending his contract in June 2022 and the last opportunity to get a good amount for he. Mbappé has rejected the renewal offers so far, all the pieces are placed in Madrid's chess and now it's time to make the move and not take risks. And touching the Argentine coach, still at PSG, would be a risk.
Neymar, Mbappé and the denials
If Pochettino leaves PSG before Madrid has selected a new coach to take over the team from the next preseason, the Argentine will undoubtedly be an option. But until that happens, in Madrid they do not contemplate proposing any pressure measure to PSG, because they want all that pressure to be focused on a single figure: Kylian Mbappé. Hence, right now the conversations are centered on Antonio Conte, with Raúl as an option in the bedroom.
It is not a new phenomenon: in the summer of 2018 Real Madrid already made up to three official denials on its website in relation to information that linked the white club and Neymar or Mbappé. Nor were they something too different from what usually surrounds Madrid in each transfer market, but on that occasion the club was especially careful to clear the balls that it was not interested in having on its roof. Already then Florentino Pérez had understood that PSG cannot be tamed with money and that the path to access its players, in this case Mbappé, passes through patience and following the official channels. For Madrid, Pochettino would be his next coach, but not at the cost of jeopardizing a strategy that has been cooking for four years.