Something Pochettino has said about himself should get Spurs fans very excited

The Spurs boss has been talking about a key moment in his career

Mauricio Pochettino's views on loyalty should give Tottenham Hotspur fans plenty of hope for the future.

Back in 2012, the Argentine was the manager of struggling Espanyol. The La Liga outfit were having big problems financially and Pochettino was forced to sell players without adequate replacements coming in, using the club's younger players to plug the gaps.

The man who will be in the opposite dugout this Sunday at the Emirates as Arsenal manager, Unai Emery, was in the process of leaving his own job at Valencia to take up a new challenge at Spartak Moscow.

Although he was not close to the Argentine, he put Pochettino's name forward to the Valencia board as the man who should replace him at the helm, having been impressed with his efforts in keeping Espanyol afloat in La Liga. The Valencia president Manuel Llorente agreed.

"He called me, the chairman of Valencia, and said 'I want you in Valencia'," admitted Pochettino on Friday.

"We were talking and he said 'Unai Emery advised me and told me to pick you, you are the best manager' and I said no, to say in Espanyol and then I called Unai who was in Spartak Moscow and said 'thank you very much for recommending me.'

"I chose to stay at Espanyol at the time. I am loyal."

It is those last three words that will give Spurs fans hope for the future as Real Madrid and plenty of Europe's other giants keep a close eye on his progress and any potential cracks in his relationship with the north London outfit.

Pochettino, who signed a lucrative new five-year deal with Spurs in May, is a man who keeps to his word and snubbing the Valencia is not the first example of that.

He also turned down a move to manage Italian side Sampdoria, which would have earned him double his Espanyol salary, because he didn't want to bail out on the stricken club he loved.

The Argentine admitted later that he could see the problems building at the Spanish side, but despite the advice of friends and family he stubbornly tried to solider on.

However, as the 2012/13 season wore on, an exhausted Pochettino could feel the club fragmenting around him and knew his visions for the future were not shared by those above him.

He eventually asked the club's new president Joan Collett to let him leave. Pochettino has never been a man obsessed with money and he offered to waive the final year's salary from his contract, only insisting that his coaching staff were paid the remainder of their deals. Collet accepted and Pochettino's time at Espanyol was done.

Some Tottenham fans have worried that the problems at Spurs with the new stadium delays and lack of signings over the summer will push Pochettino towards the exit door and one of Europe's giants.

However his experiences at Espanyol were far worse and draining yet he stuck around out of loyalty until the situation was no longer salvageable.

His past loyalty would indicate that his time at Tottenham could continue for some time yet.