Tottenham Hotpsur boss Mauricio Pochettino has emerged as firm favourite for the Real Madrid job.

Pochettino has long been linked with the Real job, and that was before Zinedine Zidane announced his departure.

However, Pocettinho has also signed a new long-term deal with Spurs – meaning it hugely difficult to land him, but that has not stopped Bookmakes cutting him into a short-price favourite.

But the man himself has insisted that he is happy at Spurs when asked about Real’s interest, saying: “I am so happy and I’m so excited. I signed a new contract 10 days ago – what is going to happen tomorrow, I don’t know, but I will always tell you ‘football is football,’ football will put you in your place always.

“The most important thing is to explain day by day that  life is very short and we need to spend the day thinking and enjoying life. We can’t be thinking too much and worrying about what is happening tomorrow.

“I am so happy in Tottenham and I’m so proud that Tottenham showed the commitment and trust in the way that Daniel Levy (Spurs chairman) showed me 10 days ago, and of course, we have a lot of dreams, we have a lot of objectives.”

I understand that whilst Pochettino has fans at the Santiago Bernabeu, they are look at other names including Max Allegri and reserve team boss Santiago Scolari, meaning it is far from certain that the Spurs man is the top target.

As it stands Bookmakers believe that Pochettino is firmly in place to take charge and have cut his odds to 5/4.

Alex Apati of Ladbrokes said: “They’re yet to appoint a manager, but already it looks as though all eyes are on Madrid’s transfer targets with a whole host of Spurs stars being linked with moves away.”