Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur face heat from Gary Lineker, Jamie Carragher over sacking of manager Mauricio Pochettino

London: Tottenham Hotspur’s decision to sack Mauricio Pochettino six months after leading them to the Champions League final has sent shockwaves through the football world, with pundits saying the club should have given him more time to turn the season around. Spurs sit 14th in the Premier League with only 14 points after 12 games, a situation that prompted club chairman Daniel Levy to make the “extremely reluctant” decision in an attempt to salvage their campaign. Former Manchester United and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has already been linked to the job, with Sky Sports reporting that talks between were at an advanced stage with both sides confident a deal could be reached later on Wednesday. Pochettino led Spurs to four consecutive Champions League finishes despite a relatively small transfer budget and former Spurs striker Gary Lineker said the club would be hard-pressed to find a suitable replacement. “He helped the club to punch massively above their weight for years,” Lineker said on Twitter. “Good luck with finding a better replacement … ain’t gonna happen.”

Mauricio Pochettino has been sacked by @SpursOfficial. He helped the club to punch massively above their weight for years. Good luck with finding a better replacement....ain’t gonna happen.

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) November 19, 2019

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher criticised the timing of the sacking, saying Pochettino deserved more time. “I think he should have been given until the end of the season to try and get Tottenham back where they should be and where Tottenham should be really is not actually in the top four,” he said. “Tottenham should be a top-six club but he’s made them a top-four club and also a club who almost won the title, almost won the Champions League.”

I said a few weeks ago I felt this project had ran its course, I thought there would be a change at the end of the season with either the manager or players changing. Pochettino has been a brilliant manager for Spurs & will be back in the PL sooner rather than later! #pochettino https://t.co/afKvgpIUmK

— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) November 19, 2019

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Spurs midfielder Dele Alli thanked the Argentine on Twitter. “I can’t thank this man enough,” the 23-year-old said. “He’s taught me so much and I’m so grateful for everything he’s done for me. Good luck and hope to see you again my friend.” However, with only 25 points from their last 24 games stretching back to last season, former Spurs manager Harry Redknapp said the sacking was inevitable. “The results have not been good enough, they’ve not performed well enough. That’s what gets you sacked as a football manager,” Redknapp said, adding that he would return as an interim manager until the end of the season if he was asked. “They’ve had one Champions League final and, if you look back at the run, really everything went their way a little bit. But they’ve not won a trophy in five or six years with an incredible squad of players, full of internationals. “People talk about the players there all loving him. If they love him that much, maybe they should have started playing a bit better. At the end of the day, they’ve got him the sack.”