Saturday 9 February 2019 07:42, UK
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino insists that eating dinner at the same restaurant as David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane this week was coincidental, amid speculation linking him with Real Madrid.
Pochettino was photographed on Tuesday evening leaving a London restaurant around the same time as the former Real duo, who spent three years and won the Spanish Super Cup together at the Bernabeu.
Pochettino's success at Spurs has seen him linked with various jobs at Europe's biggest clubs, most prominently Manchester United and Real ahead of a summer in which both clubs are expected to make new permanent appointments.
But the Spurs boss said: "I was with Jesus (Perez) and another person. We were three.
"We met by coincidence with you know (Beckham and Zidane) and that is all the history. We only said hello because we met by coincidence there, but then the story appears and how do you stop (it)?
"That is the reality. We nearly finished at the same time. He came to say hello and we spent two minutes talking together and then we split."
After many had ruled Spurs out of the Premier League title race, three consecutive victories have seen them close to within five points of Manchester City and Liverpool at the top of the table.
"We are there, third in the table," Pochettino said of his side's title hopes. "For us it's going to be to win the three points Sunday to be involved until the end.
"That is our objective, to be involved to the end, to be a realistic contender and have the possibility in the last five games to be there, to try to make (it) possible to be contenders."
