Perhaps one day we’ll learn the full story of Kieran Trippier’s final season at Tottenham.
Speaking to The Telegraph in September 2019, soon after leaving for Atletico Madrid, the full-back described his last few months at Spurs as a “car crash’ and suggested that Mauricio Pochettino’s showed him a lack of support as rumours of his impending exit swirled.
The 29-year-old has now stuck the knife a little further into the Argentine, in an interview with Football Focus in which he raved about Atletico boss Diego Simeone.
Trippier did describe Poch as a “great manager”, but didn’t put him in the same class as his current gaffer who he believes has made him a more complete player.
When asked if Simeone is the best manager in the world, Trippier replied: “Right now, for me yes. Obviously you’ve got some great managers, you’ve got Klopp, Guardiola, Sean Dyche,” he said. “You’ve got quality managers out there. He’s certainly up there.”
He added: “At the Premier League at times I was too eager to get forward. I feel like my understanding of when to get forward, when to defend, the positioning, I’ve worked a lot defensively in my time of being here.”
Pochettino doesn’t deserve to be in the company of Simeone, Klopp and Guardiola, but the fact that Trippier namechecked Sean Dyche, another of his former managers, but not Poch infers some bitterness remains about how things ended for him at Spurs.
And a few more interviews later, we might learn exactly why that is…