LONDON -- Andros Townsend left Tottenham because he wanted to play first-team football, according to Mauricio Pochettino, who says the winger's exit was not down to attitude or quality.
Townsend will return to Spurs -- where he spent 16 years from the age of nine -- on Saturday, when the 25-year-old's new club Crystal Palace visit White Hart Lane.
He joined Newcastle in January after being frozen out by Pochettino following an altercation with fitness coach Nathan Gardiner and starred in Spurs' 5-1 defeat at St. James' Park on the final day of last season, before joining Palace from the relegated Magpies this summer.
Pochettino played Townsend for just 64 minutes of league football last season before his exit and the manager says the England international simply wanted to play more.
"Football is full of hard decisions," Pochettino explained in a news conference. "It's not about personal things or issues. We spent nearly two years together here and had a good relationship. We took a professional decision. It's not an issue. We split our ways and nothing happened.
"As a manager, you take a lot of decisions every day. If a player's not happy because they want to play more, then they try and find another way to try and play. This is the difficult thing with football. Basketball is different -- you can have a squad and change every five minutes or two minutes and everyone is happy. Football is different.
"Andros, as we know, is a classic winger. He plays wider but it is not about his qualities. He wanted to play more and feel important in the team. Here at Tottenham it was difficult because he was sharing duties with Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela and Dele Alli and Nacer Chadli. If you wanted to play more, you can wait or find another place to play."
Townsend, who has admitted he was "not playing well enough" at Spurs, did not feature for Pochettino again after clashing with Gardiner during the warm-down following Spurs' 3-1 win over Aston Villa in November.
The manager, however, insisted the spat was not a factor in his exit and said there were limited opportunities to rotate his squad after losing in the League Cup third round in September.
"That was a problem during one week," Pochettino said of the incident, which came after the manager used Joshua Onomah as a late sub ahead of Townsend.
"[Afterwards] there was not too much opportunity to play. I think we were out of the League Cup. I don't remember well, but there was not too much possibility to rotate. It's true that he was unlucky with an ankle injury. It was difficult, yes, a struggle."
Asked why modern managers favour "inverted" wingers over tradition touchline-hugging players, like Townsend, Pochettino said: "I don't know, maybe it's the evolution of football.
"A lot of managers use wingers very wide, typical wingers like in the past. I think it's about balance. But it's true that in the evolution of football, all players are more flexible. We use full-backs inside like a midfielder, we use wingers like a full-back, we play with midfielders that can play like centre-backs, and centre-backs that can play like midfielders, or offensive midfielders that can play like a striker. Now we are a little bit mad, the managers, we like to invent a lot."
Meanwhile, Tottenham right-back Kyle Walker is wary of threat posed by "danger man" Townsend on Saturday if, as expected, the winger starts for Alan Pardew's side.
"It's difficult to defend against his style," Walker said. "Hopefully I can get him running back the other way and make him do the things he doesn't want to do. He's a fantastic dribbler, a good ball carrier and he can shoot with either foot so he's a danger man for them."