- Mauricio Pochettino was keen to sign two future Liverpool stars in 2016.
- Gini Wijnaldum and Sadio Mane played as Liverpool beat Spurs in the Champions League final in 2019.
- Sadio Mane had played at Southampton before joining Liverpool, Pochettino’s former club.
In football, the line between legendary success and agonizing “what-if” moments is incredibly thin. For former Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino, one specific summer transfer window perfectly encapsulates how close he came to altering the modern history of both Spurs and Liverpool.
Speaking on The Overlap podcast, Pochettino revealed that during his highly acclaimed tenure in North London, he desperately tried to sign two pivotal players who would eventually go on to achieve European glory on Merseyside: Sadio Mané and Georginio Wijnaldum.
“We wanted to sign Mané and Wijnaldum, and for different reasons we couldn’t achieve that,” Pochettino admitted. “But sometimes you need this luck and this timing. I remember that we were interested in them, but they decided to move to Liverpool.”
The pivotal 2016 transfer window
The sliding-doors moment occurred in the summer of 2016. Pochettino’s Spurs had just come off a phenomenal, yet ultimately heartbreaking, Premier League campaign. They had pushed for the title in a chaotic season but famously ran out of steam, finishing third as Leicester City completed their fairytale 11 points ahead of them.
Recognising that his squad needed an injection of elite, dynamic talent to bridge the gap from challengers to champions, Pochettino went shopping in the Premier League.
“I can tell you that we tried, I think it was in 2016 when we finished the season, we tried to sign two players,” the manager recalled.
Mané had spent two blistering seasons at Southampton. In fact, the Senegalese winger had actually signed for the Saints in 2014 just as Pochettino left the South Coast for White Hart Lane meaning Pochettino was likely already deeply familiar with the scouting reports on his immense potential.
Meanwhile, Wijnaldum was looking for an immediate escape route from Newcastle United following their relegation to the Championship.
Alternative signings and the 2019 Irony
Tottenham ultimately missed out on both targets, with Jürgen Klopp luring the duo to Anfield for a combined fee of around £60 million.
Forced to pivot, Tottenham’s recruitment took a vastly different shape. Instead of Wijnaldum, Spurs signed his relegated Newcastle teammate, Moussa Sissoko, on transfer deadline day.
To bolster the attack in place of Mané, Pochettino brought in Dutch striker Vincent Janssen, alongside midfielder Victor Wanyama. While Spurs actually improved domestically the following year finishing second with 86 points Pochettino left London without lifting a major trophy.
The ultimate irony of missing out on Mané and Wijnaldum came to a head three years later during the 2019 Champions League Final in Madrid. Not only did the duo choose Anfield over White Hart Lane, but they also became the chief architects of Pochettino’s greatest managerial heartbreak.
The final blow in Madrid
Before even reaching the final, it was Wijnaldum who resurrected Liverpool’s European dream, coming off the bench to score two iconic, quick-fire goals in the legendary 4-0 semi-final second-leg comeback against Barcelona.
Then, in the final itself, Mané took center stage. Just twenty seconds into the match, the Senegalese forward drove into the box and cleverly clipped the ball against the outstretched arm of Sissoko the very player Spurs had signed instead of Wijnaldum.
The resulting penalty was converted by Mohamed Salah, handing Liverpool an early cushion and the perfect defensive platform to secure their sixth European Cup with a 2-0 victory.
For Pochettino and Tottenham, it remains one of the greatest recruitment near-misses of the modern era a stark reminder of how a single transfer window can dictate the destination of the biggest trophies in world football.
