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Mauricio Pochettino
- Thread starter Dorothy
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ricky2tricky4city
Tom Huddlestone
The ex-Southampton boss, who spent more than five years at Spurs, told BT Sport: “It was an amazing journey that finished the way no one wanted it to finish. But deep in my heart I am sure our paths will cross again. From the day I left the club, my dream is to be back one day and to try to finish the work we didn’t finish. We were so close to winning the Premier League and Champions League.
“Of course I am looking forward to moving on and I am so motivated for the next project. But deep inside I want to go back because the fans are so special. Maybe in five years, maybe in 10 years, but before I die I want to manage Tottenham.
“I want to feel what it means to win one title with Tottenham because the fans are amazing, all the love we received was amazing and that is a good opportunity to pay back all the love they showed us from day one.”
“Of course I am looking forward to moving on and I am so motivated for the next project. But deep inside I want to go back because the fans are so special. Maybe in five years, maybe in 10 years, but before I die I want to manage Tottenham.
“I want to feel what it means to win one title with Tottenham because the fans are amazing, all the love we received was amazing and that is a good opportunity to pay back all the love they showed us from day one.”
ricky2tricky4city
Tom Huddlestone
I don't know whether to cry or smile?
MKSpur
Christian Ziege
Finney Is Back
Luka Modric
I must confess that I head a tear in eye towards the end of the show last night.
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
What always comes across with Poch is that humility and empathy for the fans
He did what I’ve never seen anyone do here... he joined the fans together and had the board behind him
Have to wonder what would have happened if we had won in Madrid
He did what I’ve never seen anyone do here... he joined the fans together and had the board behind him
Have to wonder what would have happened if we had won in Madrid
DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
He even wore the Ajax shirt to the interview.
Mentions that one of his regrets is that he didn't wear it to the final as well, and you can tell that it's a genuine regret that he's still emotional about.
The whole thing aired on BT Sport 2, if anyone's interested. Towards the end, he chuckles and says he's now 'conspirating' with the universe by putting his dream and his energy out there - to return to us one day, before he dies, and bring us just one title if he can to repay us for the five years we loved him.
It's just a really emotional interview, in the most classic Poch way possible.
Agreed, mate. I've held back from saying I would have him back on Monday if he's up for it, because it would be unfair on Mourinho. Who, honestly hasn't done or said much wrong when he's been here, and deserves a fair shot.
But...honestly, I can't say that I don't feel that way in my heart. Now, a year from now, five years from now, ten - it doesn't matter to me. I just want to see him back here, to finish our story and put a smile on our faces again with his positivity, and irrepressible sense of destiny.
Watching him in that interview, I'm reminded more than ever of something Mourinho said on that day in November.
This is Poch's club.
Like it was Jol's club, all those years ago - Poch made this his home, and well and truly left his mark on us as a club, and as a fanbase. We loved him for it - and he loved us for it.
It was a perfect story, which almost never happens to a club like ours, perpetually doomed to fail in the most creative ways possible. And I would trade that fudging CL final in a fudging heartbeat for a better ending to our story with Poch than the one we got.
Still would. And maybe that's more than just an idle hope now.
Honest question to you and the others who have responded to this .. why?
How is it going to turn out different, how will it do anything but tarnish the shine further? If he had quit after the CL final, he would be seen with no downside (we would have forgiven the end of the PL season easily). To come back after his final year almost was a train wreck to do what?
Now, if he went to manage a bigger club than us, bagged a bunch of trophies and then decided at his peak, he had unfinished business, then maybe I understand. But Poch the manager today is the same guy that needs to learn how to cross the line in the moments that matter, not to operate on emotion only, how to keep the senior players bought in, how to add to a squad quickly (not require a year+ for players to adapt)
Poch is the pretty ex you broke up with before it got truly bad, so you can both still recall the best moments .. those things are best left that way.
DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
I've come around to a couple of things about how Poch's time here ended, which I think a lot of us now realize in hindsight.
At its heart is that, after five years, we always got close, but never crossed the line. That's a fact that no one can dispute - we failed when it mattered most. And, no doubt, that wore down the players' belief in Poch's methods, and you could see it in how our pressing basically vanished, the players got sloppier and sloppier, and our cohesion eventually faded away.
But I don't blame him for that - at least, not him alone. Because he had realized this as well. Time and again, he pleaded for a full squad overhaul, for funds to bring in the players he wanted, for players he didn't want to be moved on. He recognized as much as anyone that the crop he had had effectively run its course under him.
He never got that squad overhaul he wanted. And thus, his time faded away.
For me, I had come to terms with the fact that this squad had run its course under Poch all the way back in September. But I had also resolved that I didn't mind if this was a transition year, or the start of a new cycle. I was prepared to take a rough season, a la 2013/2014, and then see a clearout and a revamp of the squad akin to 2014/2015, when Poch first came in.
In my eyes, momentum goes in cycles - and the momentum to rebuild towards the heyday moments of 15/16 and 16/17 would take a couple of seasons to achieve.
But I also believed that Poch could deliver that momentum. Still do, because five years of wonders on a shoestring budget with a cheapskate chairman counted for something, in my eyes. It wasn't always him when it came to the big game moments - I remember that FA Cup semi against Chelsea in 2017, when they brought Hazard and Alonso off their bench while all we could respond with were N'Koudou and Janssen. Poch wasn't responsible for that - there's another man responsible for that, and he's the guy at the top of the club.
The tactical approach was the right one - gegenpressing is now the dominant system of the day, after all. The managerial approach was the right one - Poch brought the club together like almost no one before him had done, and kept us together through some extremely challenging times. And the man himself was the right one - the values Poch espouses are ones I want to see Spurs espousing, and values I will one day teach my kids.
All he needed was a new set of players, who were made of sterner stuff than the last batch - who wouldn't fold like a pack of cards at the very top end. With that, and with the experience of this previous cycle of 14/15 to 19/20, I fully believed Poch would cross that final hurdle.
Alas, he never did get that chance. But I still think he can do it, and if he came back tomorrow, I'd be fudging thrilled as long as he could clear out this sorry bunch and start over.
DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
And, as an addendum, Mourinho says all the right things, but I think he will also be hamstrung by the mentalities of our bunch, as surely as Poch was. This group of players don't have it in them to win things - something drastic will need to change in our squad composition to cross that line.
It's why I don't mind if we sign someone like Matic, even if his legs are going - because, like Edgar Davids did for us back in the day, he will bring us a never-say-die mentality that is sadly all too rare in this lot at the moment.
It's why I don't mind if we sign someone like Matic, even if his legs are going - because, like Edgar Davids did for us back in the day, he will bring us a never-say-die mentality that is sadly all too rare in this lot at the moment.
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
That Chelsea game is a classic quote though...
It wasnt Alonso it was costa and it was a pure tactical call from Conte that we could have similarly done in the CL final
We were more worried about their bench than our own game almost
Poch rarely pulled off a tactical master stroke in the key games like that. You could argue bringing in Llorente in certain games worked but ultimately his reliance was on the same system and tactics
The guy need to adapt some different strategies and philosophies to win things... maybe winning ugly. Nowadays unless you have the most invested in team your looking for a lot of luck in the other teams faltering to win things
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
Matic does not come across a player with that mentality IMO
And we won’t IMO sign him as he is quite limited. If we’re after a holder we will go for someone who can run first and foremost
But i do agree a player who can come in and show his medals would be very valuable
I’ll say about Davids that from several players I’ve spoken to who played with him here he wasn’t popular and he wasn’t deemed to be very good. I think the fans believed he did more than the players did. The one player who I’ve only heard really positive things about was Naybet.
DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
I don't see how. I'm not denying Poch made mistakes - starting Son at left-back was one of them, also in that game. It's part and parcel of learning the game, which he was doing throughout his time here. He grew as a manager, as much as we grew as a club under him.
But I don't see how he could have done things differently in general. We had crap benches for most of his time here, a shortage of depth and ability beyond our first 11. Our tactical options were limited at the best of times.
And, within those limitations, Poch was a lot more flexible than people sometimes gave him credit for. Bringing on Llorente was essentially winning ugly - it was route one football the minute he came on, the best example of which was the final goal against Ajax. Sissoko lumps it forward, a combination of Llorente/De Ligt brings it down, Alli plays it through, and here's Lucas Moura.
And, alternately, the tactical ploys that he sometimes used were a lot deeper than that - the day we utterly destroyed City in Pep's first game against us was a masterclass in targeted disruption of their build-up play, for example. And the 2-0 against Chelsea in 16/17 - that whole game revolved around creating situations that isolated the shorter Azpilicueta (I think it was) against Dele coming in at the back stick. We tried it four times, as I recall. It worked twice, and won us the game.
Apart from that, his predilection for switching up from 4-2-3-1 to 3-4-2-1 in games also comes to mind. He wasn't a one-trick pony by any stretch of the imagination.
DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
I think he does - by all accounts, he's a leader in United's dressing room and an influence on the younger players. And, as you mention, the 'show us your medals' effect is very valuable, as is having a tactical lieutenant on the field (as Dier once was for Poch).
I agree he's a bit limited, but I think he would work in a similar situation to when we signed Davids. And it's interesting that the players didn't think much of Davids when he arrived - I will point out that we didn't think much of many of them as well.
ricky2tricky4city
Tom Huddlestone
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
Maybe but I’m talking about players like Keane, Dawson and Defoe who I consider club modern legendsI think he does - by all accounts, he's a leader in United's dressing room and an influence on the younger players. And, as you mention, the 'show us your medals' effect is very valuable, as is having a tactical lieutenant on the field (as Dier once was for Poch).
I agree he's a bit limited, but I think he would work in a similar situation to when we signed Davids. And it's interesting that the players didn't think much of Davids when he arrived - I will point out that we didn't think much of many of them as well.
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
His one trick was press, press press
The 3 at the back move was a genuine tactical change but he changed back for some reason
And if Llorente was that plan B why did he let him leave this summer knowing we had no one else
DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
And, returning to the topic of Poch, the managers he mixed with and regularly beat at the very top level (Klopp, Zidane, Mourinho, Pep, Conte) sort of skew the reality of what he was - which is a very young manager who was still learning the ropes.
To provide some context for the reality of the job he did with us, Klopp spent about 8 years at Mainz 05 before he moved to Dortmund, just learning the ropes of management at the top level - this period including being relegated once, in 2006-2007. Once he got to Dortmund in 2008, it took him three further years to win a trophy, and then the Bundesliga. It was 11 years before Klopp won something, and the man is now on year 20 of his professional managerial career.
Poch had about five seasons of experience in total when he came to us - three-ish at Espanyol, two-ish at Southampton. And he spent about five years here in total - meaning he's had about ten seasons of experience managing.
At that stage in Klopp's career, he still hadn't won a trophy either - he would the subsequent year.
Same thing with Conte, incidentally - when he won the title with Chelsea, he'd already accumulated about eleven years of coaching experience (albeit with titles at Juventus).
Poch isn't perfect, but he deserved more time from us than we gave him. And he did a wonderful job with us that many of the managers he mixed with couldn't have possibly done in equivalent circumstances.
Given that, I feel like it's reasonable to expect that the experiences he gained from 2014/2015 to 2019/2020 would have stood him in good stead with us, if we had persisted with him.
And I think they will wherever he goes next - that club will be getting a much more experienced, more streetwise version of Poch than we got. And they will benefit from it.
To provide some context for the reality of the job he did with us, Klopp spent about 8 years at Mainz 05 before he moved to Dortmund, just learning the ropes of management at the top level - this period including being relegated once, in 2006-2007. Once he got to Dortmund in 2008, it took him three further years to win a trophy, and then the Bundesliga. It was 11 years before Klopp won something, and the man is now on year 20 of his professional managerial career.
Poch had about five seasons of experience in total when he came to us - three-ish at Espanyol, two-ish at Southampton. And he spent about five years here in total - meaning he's had about ten seasons of experience managing.
At that stage in Klopp's career, he still hadn't won a trophy either - he would the subsequent year.
Same thing with Conte, incidentally - when he won the title with Chelsea, he'd already accumulated about eleven years of coaching experience (albeit with titles at Juventus).
Poch isn't perfect, but he deserved more time from us than we gave him. And he did a wonderful job with us that many of the managers he mixed with couldn't have possibly done in equivalent circumstances.
Given that, I feel like it's reasonable to expect that the experiences he gained from 2014/2015 to 2019/2020 would have stood him in good stead with us, if we had persisted with him.
And I think they will wherever he goes next - that club will be getting a much more experienced, more streetwise version of Poch than we got. And they will benefit from it.
ricky2tricky4city
Tom Huddlestone
The strategies and philosophies could easily be fine (it took us close enough), you probably need a better level or certain type of players(s) to to take you that bit further.
Think Keane at United or when Sir Alex dropped Cantona in there or when he bought RVP just to win the league again.
We can't moan too much though as we've had a world class forward fall in our lap and we have had plenty of top class players move thru but as we were still a feeder club had to cash in. They never got to play together over a long period.
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