Mauricio Pochettino has made a bold claim that Tottenham Hotspur should have been awarded the 2016/17 Premier League title following the financial rule breaches uncovered at Stamford Bridge.
The United States national team head coach led Spurs to second place that season, finishing seven points behind Antonio Conte’s Chelsea.
However, after Chelsea were punished for breaches linked to the Roman Abramovich era, the former Tottenham manager believes the authorities should have gone further.
Chelsea were fined £10 million by the Football Association (FA) in July and were also given a suspended two-window transfer ban. The Premier League had previously fined the club £10.75m in March.
The Blues allegedly used unlicensed agents to sign players between 2009 and 2022 and also attempted to hide the true nature of some transfer dealings.
Some of the biggest names to have played for the club were linked to the investigation, including Eden Hazard, Willian, David Luiz, and Nemanja Matic.
Those players were the backbone of Conte’s title-winning team, with Hazard spearheading the charge with 16 Premier League goals and several dazzling performances.
Chelsea’s current BlueCo ownership reported the issues after taking over the club in 2022, which helped reduce the punishment.
The club avoided a points deduction, but Pochettino believes his former employers should have also been stripped of the title.
“We should win one Premier League, we should have been awarded it,” Pochettino said (via The Guardian).
“If that [Chelsea’s rule-break] was true, then we deserve to be champions that year, for sure. They were punished, they admitted it? So that’s it. The title should be for the team that was second.
“We can say that they scored goals, they won games. OK. But it’s completely fair to say that we didn’t compete before the start of the season with the same card.
“Maybe with the same rules, we could’ve signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals.”
In those 13 years, Chelsea won three Premier League titles, two Champions Leagues, two Europa Leagues, four FA Cups, and one League Cup.