Can Tottenham Get out from Beneath Man United in the Premier League Food Chain?

The sordidness of it all. The blatant betrayal, throwing it right in their faces. After all the good work they had done, too!

Any Tottenham Hotspur fan seeing just the photographs in May of Mauricio Pochettino, Jesus Perez and Sir Alex Ferguson leaving a restaurant together might have feared the worst. At the time, speculation was rife about Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal's future. Seeing their still associated, legendary boss with the north Londoners' talented young coaches was a worrying picture.

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Of course, they had nothing to be concerned about. Pochettino and his staff had just signed new contracts with Tottenham. The dinner was nothing more than expanded conversation (and wine) between football people following a brief chat at a League Managers Association event.

Still, immediately jumping to dark thoughts that Ferguson was chatting up Pochettino for the Man United job would have been understandable.

Under his management, the Premier League powerhouse took prized assets from Spurs three times. On the hunt for a new coach, they believed capable of replicating the Scotsman's success. Why would they not go back to recruit one of football's brightest? Especially one Ferguson reportedly described as "the best manager" in the division, as Tottenham MP David Lammy told podcast The Spurs Show (h/t The Independent's Simon Rice).

Pochettino leads Spurs into Old Trafford this weekend where they will face a Red Devils side managed by Jose Mourinho. The two clubs sit fifth and sixth in the table, respectively, with six points between them.

The Portuguese's presence will ensure talk of Pochettino and this job does not occur for the foreseeable future. But if it is not the Argentinian whom United are being linked with, it is invariably not long before rumours of interest in another Spurs man occurs.

Last year, it was their captain and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris before United stopper David de Gea committed his future to the Manchester club, per Sky Sports' Peter Smith. More recently and prior to signing a new contract himself, star striker Harry Kane was also being reported as a target by the Mirror's John Cross, among others.

In the past, it felt like there was little Spurs could do to stop them.

Manchester United were perennially in contention for honours, at home and abroad. They offered the chance to play with some of England and even world football's finest and to be managed by someone increasing his status in the game with each passing year.

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After five years in which Tottenham had remained largely a mid-table concern, they were fighting a losing battle trying to persuade Teddy Sheringham to stay in 1997. Just under two years later, he was a treble-winner, memorably scoring in United's dramatic Champions League victory over Bayern Munich.

Spurs were on the up in 2006 when Michael Carrick moved to the north-west after the London side narrowly missed out on qualifying for that competition. But at that point, they were not established as top-four challengers. Ferguson was about to establish the last great dynasty of his managerial career.

Two years later, it was Dimitar Berbatov making the switch, despite Spurs hinting at their potential with a Carling Cup victory just months earlier. The striker's desire to make the move led to an unhappy ending to his Spurs stay.

The appeal of Ferguson, and in turn a Manchester United Football Club still even now in large part operating to standards he set, was reiterated after Pochettino's dinner with him this year.

The Spurs manager is not an excitable man, but speaking to one of the British game's elder statesman left him in awe.

"It was a dream come true. Because when I was young and started my career as a manager, he was my inspiration, was one of my references. And when you can share two hours with a person that for me was one of the greatest managers in the world, in the history of football, you can only enjoy," the Argentinian said in a press conference back in a May.

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"I think it was interesting, was fantastic to listen, to hear him speak about football," Pochettino added later. "Not only about football, but about life."

Pochettino came to the conclusion, "when he is in front of you, the charisma and the personality, you understand why he is Sir Alex Ferguson."

The one offshoot to Ferguson's United negotiating with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy for Berbatov was it left him "reluctant to return to Spurs for players."

"This was our second trip on the Big Dipper following our move for Michael Carrick," he wrote in his 2013 autobiography. "You come off dizzy. You can't discuss both sides of the issue with Daniel. It's about him and Tottenham, nothing more, which is no bad thing from his club's perspective."

Ferguson said this dissuaded them for pursuing then-Spurs midfielder Luka Modric as a replacement for the retiring Paul Scholes.

Whether this is still their policy three managers removed remains to be seen. Even if they genuinely wanted Kane and/or Lloris, they would have had a harder time attracting them.

The dynamic between these two clubs has changed in recent times, at least in some respects.

Tottenham have finished above Manchester United in two of the three campaigns since Ferguson's retirement. Though the gap was only four points in the end, Spurs' superiority was seen in their challenging for the title in the 2015-16 campaign, including an impressive 3-0 win over the Red Devils in April.

The loss (highlights below) added to Van Gaal's unfavourable situation at the club. Yet despite the gloom surrounding his United tenure—only briefly alleviated by their FA Cup victory—he felt no regret at not taking on a different project at Spurs two summers prior.

"I liked also to sign for Tottenham Hotspur and Daniel Levy knows that," Van Gaal said in his post-match press conference that afternoon. "But the challenge was bigger for me in Manchester United and shall always be bigger.

"I'm sorry for Tottenham, but Manchester United is a bigger club, and I think it is a little bit pathetic that you asked that because they have won 3-0. It's easy to ask that."

The looming, suffocating threat of Man United's greater resources and reputation still hangs over most of the Premier League.

Even for Spurs, with their relative current parity or better league positions, they are not truly free from it. When United can attract the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan and comfortably spend nearly £100 million on Paul Pogba, you know their clout is still sizable.

Spurs will likely never match United in scale off the pitch, but Pochettino believes his team are capable of competing with the likes of them "long-term." Keep at their current level, in the vicinity to these more illustrious foes, and they should at least get out from beneath them in the Premier League food chain.

Off the back of their previous meeting and in the context of both's mixed recent form, Sunday's clash should be a fascinating one.

Mourinho's Chelsea sides had some good battles with Pochettino's Spurs. Over the course of 2015, they lost a New Year's Day thriller 5-3, beat them in the Capital One Cup final and then contested a well-fought draw.

That first game contributed to Mourinho dialing back Chelsea's more expansive style. By the time they next met in the league the following November, he was using playmaker Eden Hazard to lead the attack.

Mourinho's Man United are aspiring to a more swashbuckling style in line with the tradition furthered so brilliantly under Ferguson. With Tottenham showings signs in recent weeks of recovering their attacking nature, something is bound to give—though Pochettino may also be hoping, if match fit, the returning Toby Alderweireld will improve their defensive resistance further (see above).

With both clubs' European responsibilities now complete until in the New Year—Spurs join United in the Europa League after their Champions League elimination—this match is an important one in setting them up for a good Christmas.

Victory for Tottenham would be a big confidence-booster in reiterating their title credentials, pulling them away from a potential rival in the process. It may not mean as much for their fans, but three points for Manchester United could also be significant for Mourinho and his team if Ferguson and his counterparts were anything to go by.

"Tottenham's standing in the game imbued that victory with more lustre than a five-goal comeback, at, say, Wimbledon," Ferguson wrote of his United's stunning 5-3 win over Spurs in 2001-02. "To beat a great football club in that manner has historical ramifications. Our dressing room afterward was some place to be: players rolling their heads, not quite believing what they had done."

Getting one over Tottenham again may be just what United need to start the process of dragging Spurs back below their level once more.

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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