Dele Alli has been in the limelight all week following his middle-finger “banter” with former Spurs star Kyle Walker while on England duty against Slovakia.
Pochettino was keen to make light of it but refused to dismiss it as an entirely harmless bit of fun.
“He told the media it was a joke with Kyle,” he said. “For FIFA it will not be a big issue and it won’t be for us. We don’t need to make the situation bigger.
“It’s true it’s not a fantastic gesture but it was a joke in a moment with his team-mate.”
Serge Aurier, on the other hand, presents a more serious conundrum to ponder. The Ivory Coast’s move last month was held up due to visa issues after he avoided jail in France after appealing a two-month term for assaulting a police officer outside a Paris nightclub.
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Add to that a trail of controversial comments while at PSG and Pochettino makes no bones about this being a far more delicate situation to handle.
As a result, even a £23m price tag did not prevent the Argentine from laying down the law to his potential new signing before he put pen to paper.
“I am a person that likes to move on,” Pochettino explained.
“I am the first to make mistakes in my life. It’s important to have the opportunity to learn. We had a long chat. We talked about different things.
“He knows what we expect from him. It’s important how every player behaves here. Our dynamic needs to be good.
“I trust in him, I am confident he can help us. It’s not an issue for me what has happened in the past.
“You judge someone from the day you meet them. We start from zero and I think it’s exciting to have him here and it’s a new chapter in his life to show all that he has inside.”