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Tottenham Hotspur defender Kyle Walker-Peters feels he would still be at the club had Jose Mourinho not come in to replace former boss Mauricio Pochettino.
England Under-21 international Walker-Peters left Tottenham on a temporary basis during the winter, heading to their Premier League rivals Southampton on loan for the remainder of the campaign.
The right-back had featured sporadically for Spurs during the opening months of the season under Pochettino, including three times in the Premier League, but when the Argentine was replaced in the dugout by Mourinho in November, he found his first-team opportunities limited.
Indeed, Walker-Peters has only featured once for Spurs under Mourinho, and that was in the 3-1 defeat to Bayern Munich during the Champions League group stage, with Serge Aurier being preferred primarily at right-back.
That ultimately led to Walker-Peters' decision to leave the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on a temporary basis, but the 22-year-old does not feel he would have departed the club had Pochettino remained in charge.
"I think had he stayed; I'd still be at Tottenham. He (Pochettino) was never really big on loans," Walker-Peters told the Southampton website.
"There were always opportunities for him to send me on loan and he never did, so I think that showed his faith in me. Despite not playing me all the time, it showed that he wanted me around. If he hadn't left, I don't think I'd be on loan, so it just shows how fast football can change."
Walker-Peters is yet to fully establish himself at Southampton, featuring just once for Ralph Hasenhuttl's side prior to the football season being halted by the coronavirus outbreak.
That solitary appearance came in last month’s 2-1 home defeat to Burnley – the Londoner featuring for 73 minutes before being replaced by Michael Obafemi.
Walker-Peters' loan deal at St Mary's is set to expire at the end of June and there is no word yet as to whether those terms will be renegotiated if the season is extended indefinitely.
- TEAMtalk media
