Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochttino has backtracked on comments he made about never joining Barcelona.

The former Espanyol boss in 2018 stated he would rather "work on a farm in Argentina" than for Barcelona.

Still without a job since being sacked by Spurs last November, the 48-year-old insists he used the wrong words and claimed that in life 'you never know what will happen'.

"I was in Barcelona that year and I met [Barcelona president Jose Maria] Bartomeu in a bar," he told El Pais. "We greeted each other because we were taking the children to the same school and we were talking for five minutes.

"That generated a rumour that set off alarms because there were more teams that wanted us, and when they asked me [about taking the Barcelona job] I wanted to settle it drastically.

"I did not want to disrespect Barcelona. You can say things differently. Espanyol has made a name for me, but I'm not arrogant and I didn't like making a statement like that.

"Maybe now I wouldn't because in life you never know what will happen."