Ten years ago, Mauricio Pochettino was embarking upon a season in which his Tottenham team scored 86 goals and collected 86 points, and he is convinced they should be crowned as champions.

Chelsea won the Premier League in 2017 but have since admitted breaking the rules by making secret payments exceeding £47million to unregistered agents and third parties to secure transfers.

Pochettino has no doubt the Blues should be stripped of that title. He also believes it should rightfully go to Spurs in the same way an Olympic silver medallist would receive gold if the gold medallist were disqualified.

'We should win one title, one Premier League,' insists USA boss Pochettino. 'We should have been awarded it. They were punished. They admitted it. The title should be for the team that was second.

'We deserve to be champions that year. We didn't compete with the same rules. It's impossible if some clubs play with offside and others don't or one plays with VAR and another plays without VAR. For everyone the same rules and then the same capacity to create the best team.'

Chelsea were fined this year by the Premier League for the illegal payments covering a period from 2011-18 and including the deal to sign Eden Hazard who excelled in the 2016-17 season when they beat Spurs to the title under Antonio Conte.

They escaped sporting sanctions because the offences were self-reported and they helped the investigation.

'Maybe with the same rules we could've signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals,' says Pochettino. 'It's not me complaining, it's the truth.

'I have no doubt and I'm not scared to say the truth. The Chelsea fans will be upset with me but if Tottenham broke the rules, I'd say we don't deserve the title.

'I don't say they didn't play well or that Conte wasn't great. I don't want this message twisted. But if you broke the rules, then "ciao", you need to give it to another team.'

Pochettino has managed both clubs. His single season at Chelsea will not live long in the memory but his five years at Spurs is the club's finest era in recent history albeit without lifting a trophy.

Playing fluent, attacking football and with Harry Kane banging in the goals, they were Premier League and Champions League runners-up and all on a budget restricted by investment in a new stadium and training ground.

From January 2018 to July 2019, Spurs did not make a signing. The cumulative spend from the first five of his six summer transfer windows did not break £300m.

So, does he envy Roberto De Zerbi's summer spree of 10 signings at a cost close to £400m?

'I am happy,' says Pochettino, back home in London before this month's international break. 'Tottenham is still my club, and I want the best for them.

'If they have the possibility to spend on proven players in the Premier League it's good for the club. After the relegation battle it's important to improve and not to suffer.'

This free-spending strategy is led by a new generation of the Lewis family who own Spurs, patriarch Joe's daughter Vivienne Lewis and her son-in-law Nick Beucher along with chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange.

Just over a year has passed since Daniel Levy was ousted as Spurs chairman. And, although there were times when their relationship was tense, Levy and Pochettino grew close and remain in contact.

'He feels like I did when I was sacked,' says Pochettino. 'Now he knows the feeling. Yes, I keep in touch with him. I never made the situation personal.

'It's like you receive the letter and you are sacked, pick up your things and you can never come back. Maybe 200, 300 people that were your family, you cannot say goodbye, cannot send a text, cannot do nothing.

'That was really, really tough for me. I was talking with him about that. Of course, I'm not happy that now he feels the same because I am not a person with bad feelings.

'It's difficult because for him. For 25 years he was building his house, his club, and what happened after, for sure, was tough for him, for his family and of course I am so sorry for him and for everyone.'

Pochettino confirms he was contacted by Spurs earlier this year, as they lurched in midseason panic from Thomas Frank to Igor Tudor and came perilously close to relegation.

'Yes, but in this moment they called everyone, all the coaches, those free and not free,' he jokes, but he is serious when he adds. 'If I was free, of course, I come. But I wasn't free. I was preparing the World Cup.'

Pochettino was committed to leading the USA into the World Cup as hosts, but his initial two-year contract was expiring after the tournament and there was no decision made on his next move.

Ever since leaving in 2019, he has always been open about his desire to return one day to Spurs and would not have been deterred had they been relegated to the Championship.

'It's the only club that always I am open to help, whatever division,' he says. 'Another club, no. But Tottenham, yes.'

When Tudor's interim tenure quickly turned sour, Spurs secured De Zerbi on a long-term deal and the notion of a romantic reunion in N17 evaporated again for Pochettino.

'The timings were never the best,' he says. 'When I was free, I never received a contact and then when I was working, I received a contact, but I cannot make the decision to come back. A little bit unlucky. Maybe one day the stars will align and it can happen.'

At the World Cup, his USA team made a flying start, firing the imagination of a nation where football is far from top of the bill, only to lose to Belgium in the last 16 amid a row raging about Folarin Balogun's escape from suspension and claims of interference by the president, Donald Trump.

Pochettino rejects the Balogun affair as an excuse, only that his team did not perform to their best when it mattered most. And explains how bonds forged with the US football federation around the World Cup and the public reaction to those early successes convinced him to sign a new four-year deal.

'Before the World Cup we met the board in New York and they offered us four more years,' explains the 54-year-old Argentine. 'I said, 'Yeah but if we lose all the games…' and they said, 'No, no, no we trust in you and your vision and the way you behave'.'

The US federation was aware there would be clubs trying to tempt Pochettino, but he promised to entertain no offers and make no negotiations, focus on the World Cup and then reconvene.

When that time came, he was ready to sign until 2030, another World Cup cycle and has upcoming friendlies against Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada.

He is part of a band of elite former Premier League coaches including Thomas Tuchel, Jurgan Klopp and Carlo Ancelotti, now plying their trade in international football.

'It's more pure,' admits Pochettino when asked about the allure. 'It's intense with limited time, but you enjoy a lot one week with the players.

'The players are not toxic, they come because they want to enjoy, they want to play, they don't have time to become upset or disappointed because they don't play. It's all very motivated and the moment they start to become upset they go home to their clubs.'

Meanwhile his son Maurizio, 25, is playing career at Inter Escaldes, Andorra's first club to reach the league phase of UEFA competition in the Conference League.

And his affection for Spurs will not fade. Nor his affection for English football despite the fierce rivalry with Argentina rekindled by a World Cup semi-final. He will not reject the idea he might one day managing England when his work at the USA is complete.

'With our experience maybe yes,' says Pochettino. 'I believe in diplomatic things.' As if to prove it, he offers his unequivocal backing for England captain Kane to win the Ballon D'Or.

'It's Harry Kane's time. It's not clear today who is number one in the world and should win. In the past, it was more clear. He deserves it in his career and if I am to pick one then it's Harry Kane.'