Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has said he bears no grudges towards Barcelona counterpart Ernesto Valverde, who dropped him from the Espanyol team, saying the decision had given him the opportunity to move into coaching.
Pochettino, whose Spurs side face Barca at Wembley on Wednesday, was captain of Espanyol when Valverde took charge in 2006 but was axed from the team and retired from playing soon afterwards.
But he told a news conference: "The relationship I have with him is excellent. With time, I understood those decisions better.
"When you're a footballer you live in a kind of bubble and everything is protecting you. When somebody shows you reality, it kind of surprises you.
"After that I prepared myself as a coach, and this is why I'm here. These things show you that situations in life and in football change very quickly, and when a door closes many others open.
"After many years, I'm going to face the coach who gave me the opportunity to be a coach myself."
Pochettino has won widespread admiration for his work at Spurs, but ruled out the possibility of ever taking charge of Barcelona.
"I've been asked this question many, many times," he said. "Every time I say an answer it can be interpreted differently, so today, once and for all, I'm going to try to give you an answer.
"I want to be clear: I think it would be impossible for me to coach Barcelona. I don't have anything against them, but emotionally I'm linked to Barcelona via Espanyol.
"There are some values you cannot change. My emotional links with Espanyol are so big, not only because of the time I spent there but because of the impact it had on me personally.
"I feel so identified with the club and its colours that I won't change -- and I don't know if Barca would want me."
Spurs were eliminated from the Champions League in the group stage two years ago but reached the round-of-16 last season, beating Real Madrid along the way.
"Of course the ambition is to win, but reality and dreams and perception are not in a good balance today," Pochettino said.
"It's difficult to measure today if the team's going to be better, or improve from last season or not, because there are a lot of circumstances that we need to analyse and put together.
"Look what's going to happen in the Carabao Cup. We're going to play on Monday at Wembley against Manchester City [on Oct. 29] and then we must play on Wednesday or Thursday [against West Ham in the cup].
"Then we must play Saturday, and Tuesday again in the Champions League. That is completely unfair for a team that wants to win some titles. It's a massive challenge with different circumstances, where you can't guess what's going to happen in a few weeks.
"We don't know when we're going to play in the new stadium. When we settle ourselves and the team and the fans in the new stadium, we can start to talk about objectives."