Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has hailed Harry Kane’s contribution to saving his job at the London club.
The Argentine was appointed as the manager of Spurs back in 2014 and he had a disappointing start to life as the manager of the London club. Pochettino picked up three wins from his first nine league matches, and he believes that Harry Kane’s late winner against Aston Villa helped save his job.
After picking up just three wins from nine league matches, Tottenham found themselves trailing to Aston Villa in Pochettino’s 10th league game as the manager. However, the Londoners levelled through Nacer Chadli and Harry Kane scored the winner with an injury-time free kick.
Pochettino believes that it was a decisive goal from Kane, which saved his job and convinced the club hierarchy and the fans to believe in his project.
He wrote in his article on The Athletic: “Harry scored 169 goals for me and my coaching staff, but that last-minute free kick at Villa Park (which meant Spurs won, 2-1) is still my favourite. Because it was decisive, for us and for him.
“Before then, we had 11 points from our first nine games. It was a really, really tough moment for the club. But from that goal on, it started to get easier.
“People started to understand what we were trying to do, where we wanted to take Tottenham. For me, that was a massive, key moment. And when I see Harry now, I still tell him he saved my career, because that goal allowed us to calm down, and got people to believe in our project.”
Pochettino went on to impress with his management in the following seasons. He guided Spurs to a title challenge and a Champions League final during his time at the club.
Since leaving the club, the Argentine has been linked with a return to Spurs a number of times, and it will be interesting to see if Daniel Levy is willing to bring him back to the club in the near future.
Current manager Antonio Conte has done a great job so far. However, his contract is coming to an end at the end of the season and it will be interesting to see if Spurs can convince him to sign an extension.
