Pochettino feels he should have a Premier League title to his name.
Remember that he managed Chelsea for one season, when he struggled to win over supporters.
Chelsea finished sixth in 2023-24, but neither Pochettino nor the club are likely to look back fondly on that period.
It is different at Tottenham, with the Argentine still adored for his five-year spell in charge from 2014.
As well as finishing as Premier League runners-up, he took the club to the Champions League final in 2018-19.
The 86 points earned in 2016-17 is a club record too.
So do Spurs fans share his view?
“Of course I do,” said Chris Paouros, co-founder and co-chair of Proud Lilywhites, external and Women of The Lane., external
“He could tell me the moon was made of halloumi and I’d nod along.
“The Spurs 2016-17 team was the best in the league by most measures: best attack, best defence, fewest defeats, unbeaten at home in the last season of the old White Hart Lane.
“If the playing field was tilted, the least you can do is ask the question.”
Paouros knows Spurs will not be handed the title, but said the “rules have to mean something, whoever benefits”.
There is another side to this, however.
If you get given a title a decade later because of a rule breach, could you celebrate it?
“It would still be something that Spurs fans would celebrate,” said Tristan Foot, secretary of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust. “A victory over Chelsea, albeit 10 years after the event.”
But that sense of injustice is still there for other Premier League clubs.
“It means that to an extent crime does pay in football,” Foot said. “And that’s the serious underlying part all of this.
“During the transfer window they were signing players that we had no chance of winning, the obvious example being Willian.
“The Premier League has got to be better about imposing sporting sanctions and making sure that its rules actually have teeth.”
With all investigations now concluded, it seems unlikely that Pochettino – or anyone else – will get a retrospective trophy parade.
Will clubs get that same feeling when the Manchester City saga is finally over?
