I’VE said it before: ‘Poch and Spurs’ is the greatest will they–won’t they? romcom of all time.

Every time you think they might just get back together and live happily ever after, something happens to foil it all. And yet all of us viewers can see they belong together.

Now Mauricio Pochettino, who always talks like Tottenham’s chief lost lover, is set to manage Manchester United, having already cheated on them with Chelsea. If fate ever does bring him back to N17, then the manager is going to have to explain a lot of times “we were on a break”.

It began, as all these storylines often do, with a break-up, and the premature sacking in 2019.

As try as they might, Tottenham fans have now gone seven years trying to move on, but even Ange Postecoglou repeating “it’s who we are” at them every week wasn’t enough to erase those nagging thoughts about the one that got away.

Poch didn’t help the recovery by often mentioning how much his heart beat still pulsed for Spurs. “I would like one day to come back,” he said – which has possibly never ever been said by anybody else who has been sacked by an ungrateful boss shouting “clear your desk”.

Only a few months ago, he was at it again, exclaiming that Tottenham was “the only club that always I am open to help in whatever division.”

You seeeee. He’d have even gone back if Aston Villa had played their proper team against Spurs, and Spurs had been relegated as they should have been last season.

For Tottenham’s part, there have been reports that they have at different times checked in on Poch but like just missing someone taking off at an airport in an Adam Sandler schmaltzy movie – the timing has never been right.

Poch couldn’t let down the United States national team for Spurs, until it was possible to let down the United States national team for Manchester United.

He once vowed that he would never ever manage Arsenal – cool, bro – but it does seem he’ll manage pretty much anybody else.

As the old song goes, if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.