There’s an old phrase which is rather pertinent when it comes to our old pal Poch, and his post-Tottenham career, ‘you can’t have it both ways’.
Still lauded for five and a half years of competing at Spurs, the Argentinian made a conscious effort to kept himself in the press, discussing at length his next move in football management. Mauricio has been linked with numerous sides, both foreign and domestic, but one by one, each of the positions passed him by.
Finally, one of the most prized crowns in Europe is within the 46-year-old’s grasp. Whatever will Poch do?
Recently we were told in Poch’s El Pais interview that his concerns over coaching Barca wouldn’t be spoiled by his own arrogance.
What does the future hold for Mauricio? What is certain is that his reputation will not survive for much longer, he’s running out of clubs that aren’t quite right for him.
If this appointment were not to happen, then Poch will have officially become professional former manager. I wish him well, but he’s surely running out of places to hide.
He’s odds on favorite. He knows their president… As a player Poch was a winner, leading espanyol to their first major trophy in 60 years… As a manager its tough to win at spurs, saints, espanyol when you’re up against madrid barca, man city etc.. Poch took all his clubs as far as anyone could.. He exceeded expectations. He gave us a winning mentality and we were unbeaten in our last year at the lane. The two years neglect and unhappy players (because of low salaries and neglect).. And specific snowflakes like tintin is why he never won with us…. I hope he gets offered that job the man deserves it.
I really hope he ends up there because it’ll put many people’s noses out of joint if he then starts landing trophies.
Yes, he was a “nearly man” at Spurs but when you’ve got ENIC with the key to the vault and Levy demanding a blood sacrifice every time you want to use it, any manager would have ended up in the same situation.
He turned us into a regular top four side and had ENIC heeded his plea for a “painful rebuild”, he may well have turned us into a title winning side as well but, sadly, we’ll never know.
If he’s offered the job, the lure of working with Messi, Suarez & co. may be too tempting to turn down so his loyalties to Espanyol might have to be put on the back burner.
I’ll just say that if Poch is as good as he thinks he is, then he has to take this one.
No big teams, even a Barca in transition want Poch. The big teams want winners. Poch doesn’t fit into that catagory. A nearly man, a nice man. Just not a winner
I never bought in to the winkfest of either the top2 teams in Spain. That Barcelona team we played kicked us out of the competition and as for the RM Galacticos shat…………
Always preferred the lesser teams like Sevilla & Valencia and the grit of AM.
Good luck Poch.you will need it there but maybe you both being Argentinian may save the situation unless he(Messi) does a Danny Rose on you.
I think his a**e is fractionally smaller!
I agree with your first sentence.The club has been allowed to rot at the top and the players have so much power,if Messi doesn’t agree with you it’s only a matter of time as you’re adead man walking.
Money is tight,there are too many once great players coming to the end of their careers and the young players they have bought are mostly not up to the job.
They were taught a salutary lesson by Bayern last night and the rebuilding work required is massive.I wouldn’t envy any manager that position right now.
Yes Poch will need to take a job before too long,but this one is probably too big and would he be given enough time,it’s doubtful,as the club and fans will be looking for mmediate results which is unrealistic.
In their current siuation it would not surprise me is Messi was finally sacrifised,or he chose to leave,to release sufficient funds to kickstart the rebuild.
Barca had their pants pulled down and given a good spanking by ze Germans – that’s gonna hurt on so many levels. The club seems to have issues that have fatally weakened them and this is probably a watershed moment for them. Messi isn’t getting any younger and can’t play forever so they need to do something to get back to the top. I don’t think Poch has had much experience in dealing with inflated egos so I think there are some current players that would need to go in order to give him a fighting chance. Poch could probably build a team that will compete but given Barca’s stature he needs to win not be happy with competing. How patient are their fans prepared to be in the transition period? Hopefully his tactical nous and philosophy on subs have improved while away from the game, In a way, for me, Poch is a bit like the Kardashians – never accomplished much but got famous and able to convince people he was achieving something but delivering very little tangible in greatness.
Tricky one this. Poch still has a home in Barcelona and even took the Spurs squad there to train mid season several times.
However, it’s s very tricky job and the financial muscle they once had for a mega rebuild might not be as big, especially given the killer lurgy (that means you can’t die from nothing else these days) situation.
Secondly, he’s proudly an Espanyol man so would their fickle fans even give him an inch of leeway to undertake a rebuild? Hard to say really, he’ll certainly know more about the situation at Barca than any of us do. He’s good enough but these jobs, like Real are generally short term and constantly uncertain. The pressure is relentless because of the expectation…
A completely poisoned chalice for any manager. Both Iniesta and Xavi have turned down the job and they must know what is going on behind the scenes, but Poch needs to start a new job. I believe that he has said that he wanted to remain in the PL but what is available for him there? Perhaps the Newcastle deal will be restarted or perhaps he is waiting for the Utd job but he will have to make a decision soon.
He said he would never do it being an Espanyol man.
I think this could be damned if you do, damned if you don’t for poch. He takes the job and it is almost certain failure as the kids coming through are not good enough, and no money to back fill the top players. Damned if he don’t as he will look like he is not interested or doesn’t think he is good enough.
Iniesta turned the job down before the latest manager got the job and that was a wise move. The time to take the job is after the next manager does all the dirty work and builds decent foundations for success.
He did, Barcelona would take years to rebuild and I don’t think Poch wants to go through that again. But who knows you probably only get one chance to manage Barcelona.
Did he not once say he would never go to Barca? Because of his espanyol links? 😂 Obviously great for him if he could take over there.
Any manager will be up against it. Barcelona have a debt estimated at £400 million, they have the largest wage bill in world football. They are planning to do a very expensive remodel of the Camp Nou.
The team is old and the transfer fees they pay are exorbitant and the players have been poor. The whole culture in the board room and in the dressing room is toxic. They seem to change managers on an annual basis now and the players seem to have no respect for the board and whatever manager is appointed
Then there is the elephant in the room what happens as the time of Messi comes to an end. Not a very enticing set up for any manager.