Mauricio Pochettino has surfaced again, this time via a Sky Sports interview where the Argentine makes no effort to dress up his desire to get back into the Premier League, at the earliest opportunity.
Speaking as someone that struggled over the authenticity of the man when he was at Tottenham, reading some the quotes make it difficult to keep a straight face.
This, from the same chap that repeatedly sat in increasingly uncomfortable Spurs’ pressers, reciting the same lines about being “so happy” with his squad …as it collapsed around him.
Clearly still in denial about his five and half years at Spurs – a trophy-less tenure the 47-year-old said: “That is more than winning titles“, this is the line that surely betrays a fundamentally flawed mindset. Is this the managerial mindset that Manchester United fans are looking for? Are Real Madrid looking for a coach wanting to adopt such a holistic approach?
When Poch was sacked and Mourinho was appointed, Graeme Souness didn’t mince his words, saying that the change made sense.
“Last year, it was 20 games in total they lost. If a team can lose that many games and get to the final of the Champions League, you’d have to say it was a fluke and it camouflaged what was really going on at Spurs.”
Legacies in football are built upon the sort of tangible achievements one readily associates with the likes of Bill Shankly, Bill Nicholson, Alex Ferguson and Brian Howard Clough.
Part of me feels sorry for Mauricio, but mostly, I’m just glad he’s no longer our problem.
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And if levy is thinking that he’s a genius
When every poch player has been changed I’m sure poch could come back and carry it all on one day and do a good job with a new lot.
Or do want it to be a draw?
Got a tuff one for ya. Winner José Tottenham. to beat loser pochs united by how much? a lot or a few? Stuffing or a tight game. Choose.
We” as in you and pochs people?
We don’t know the legal ramifications. Greedy or tied up in clause?
Learn from it don’t live in it would be my advice.
And after you’ve done that? (Learned from the past and extracted all the useful bits and learned from them? Anyway. OK mate
The past is always relevant, learning from it is key to future success.
Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. The past is relevant to many things in life. The past is what made most of us SPURS fans. I understand What East Stand is saying. I get your we need to move forward and you can’t do so while focusing on the past. There has to be the middle of the road where we use the past to make sure we move forward correctly, not recklessly run from past mistakes. Also this is not ancient past we are talking about this is recent past with Poch. In order to move forward you must deal with the recent past that has put you in the situation you are in.
I agree Poch did wonders with what he was given. That wasn’t much in terms of net spend but the talent was and is there. I also don’t believe we will get anywhere in the future unless the check book gets opened. and we spend like a big club. We can’t spend recklessly though. I don’t want to spend just to say we spent.
East I know who was on that team but I believe we could have one something with the team we had. We were beating teams with better quality and better known and paid players than us. That was the beauty of it. we were in the top four of the league. With that group anyone of those teams could beat the other on any given day. I think we could have beat Chelsea and nobody will convince me we couldn’t have. We had beat them and other top teams at that time.
Oh yeah ramos did actually last 365 days odd.. Santini only lasted 13 days my goodness me… Still that was martin jols team they were mostly his players and we got bale and modric around jols tenure… Tony soprano
Eriksen gone, rose gone, no striker.. Standing still really
Only a month long levy window had him looking like that .. wait till the summer!
Botch ??? Give us a break, for Christs sake.
5 Mins? Wasn’t that santini? “I was promised wonderful panoramic views” all I could see was into next doors garden🌚. The woodgate winner. Gwarn Ramos. 🌚
Seriously mate, if discussion of the recent past irks you this much I suggest you directly message the owner of the site and tell him which subjects he can and can’t write about. See if you have more success policing him than you do me.
Maureen is the number 1 chequebook manager though, no man in history has spent more. Over 1 billion only pep comes close to that spending.. Eddie howe, chris wilder etc have never had such luxuries, i wonder how these guys would fare if given joses inherited players and extreme spending.. I hope you’re right and time will tell.. But so far maureens ‘very happy’ with everything too he sounds like poch plus one.. I hope baldy will back him properly in the summer windows, but history tends to repeat itself.. Jol, redknapp, poch , none were backed when needed.. Maureen couldnt thrive at manure under their transfer policies so i struggle to see how he will under levys dictatorship and incompetence.
Fcuk ramos he was only there for 5 minutes.. Shout out to martin jol, that was his team really… Jol was a good manager, another treated disgracefully by levy.
I’m learning connecting words from you. Nothing else. Oh yeah. Full stops and comers. You waste your good grammar man. You could use it the write positive uplifting things sometimes. Night mate
Poch accepted the clause I think you’ll find. Didn’t have to. Greedy like the rest of the rich. Fk him.
I’d rather him bring a big team to Tottenham for us to spank. Have some wine after then fk off.
Just stand and wait in the corner till someone calls ya. “For what?.
Was Mitch wanted by every football club in the world (as manager) at any time?
How brights the light up there mate? Lilly white bright. Obviously🌚
Don’t apologize for seeing the light man. Its been a long not so bright tunnel.
think I’ll follow MY heart mate
I’m not trying to sound like anything, I just don’t want my fellow faithful hoodwinked either. I’m spreading the word, be smart and don’t get taken in by shiny stuff with no substance…
To dare is to doubt Tottenham.
A lot of the big clubs (especially the two biggest ones) won’t be splashing it soon. They gotta do what we just did. It ain’t cheap. We gonna capitaliz€ on that. 🌚🌚. Its all in place for Tottenham. Years a head.
Keep the faith, I get it and I do, many years doing that with Spurs. ENIC need to show more to earn faith back from the fans, who knows maybe they will. Not holding me breath though!
We will have to see, I honestly hope I’m wrong. I want to see us go places and if ENIC finally change for whatever reason then I’ll stop moaning about them. Until that point I remain skeptical.
Don’t particularly want Jose’s style of football from what I’ve seen so far, it’s just not ‘Spurs’. Unless he wins stuff pretty quickly he won’t last very long, I’d be surprised if he’s still there in s season and a half…
Have to admit though. A lot of people. put a load a rubbish. well
Oh what’s the point. This is the reason I don’t comment on facebook and twitter. People just trying to sound… OK then mate.
I’m beginning to sound like a Levy apologist, but remember before the January window many predicted we’d buy no players. Then we got Gedson and Bergwijn and paid for Lo Celso. I think the financial side is changing and we’ll see more in the summer and the following windows.
Donna Cullen is a con woman. Is that better? 😂
I accept the past. If you go for a job then they look at your CV, references etc. The past is always used to make judgement on the future, what else do we have?
I own a jewelers and I employ a career armed robber based on blind faith? The past is irrelevant to nobody, I’m afraid…
All People in power you mean?🌚 con people by the way🌚
I have no idea, all I know is that when you have a manager that can overachieve to such a degree on the pitch given the relative budget that to back him is the only logical path to take.
If you have all these supposed reasons for spending less net than say West Ham or Watford over 5 seasons, then surely you find the money to at least up it a gear or two to back great management?
Jose is the antithesis of that, why is he even our manager? I don’t get it, desperation?
TOTTENHAM COME FE CONQUER THE BLOODCLART WORLD. shout it from the roof tops. Excuse my daddy’s twang. 🌚
The past has to be accepted man if you wanna move forward. CONQUERING will keep your mind busy.🌚
So he’s got his jackboot on our necks so we’re just gonna have to accept it? Nah…
Levy would say that it was necessary to finance the training ground and the stadium, its a balancing act. Some of the teams that have spent a lot more than us have achieved a lot less and put themselves in debt, Arsenal, West Ham, Everton, Man United and the others who are bigger net spenders what sort of shape are they in?
You gotta let it go brother. The levy war is over.
Does the net spend matter? 17th in the league? Does it matter if you’re trying to win £hit? I think it probably does… 😂
He’d have got his P45, just like Levy’s old mate ‘Mitch’…
Does the past net spends matter now? If it were explained to you the way you want to hear it would you start wearing your colors with pride again putting all that past crap behind you?
That kind of belief is based con what you know about your life etc. I’m talking about con men…
Levy will win venture capitalist of the decade! Oh what joy! 😂
Levy and ENIC are great venture capitalists. It’s just a shame they never transfer a portion that wealth gain into investment in the football team.
Could you explain the 17th net spend over 5 seasons? I can’t…
A sense dat I mean a sense that you a talk now brethren
I agree with a lot of what you say, but I think it needs to be acknowledged that Levy has turned Tottenham into a financial powerhouse and that is only going to increase, helped I agree by Pochs work. I would love more money spent on the team but not on agents and hangers-on which other clubs are doing. We could be a lot worse off. We could be owned by Gold and Sullivan or Ashley. I think Levy will gradually start to compete financially when he feels the foundation is secure. I think we’re getting close, hence Mourinho’s appointment. Levy is infuriating but he’s intelligent, wily and best of all lucky. Anybody who can turn an asset bought for £19 million into a billion or billion and a half has my respect, grudging though it is.
Poch would already have a new job by now, Levy put a clause in his settlement that he has to go on gardening leave until the summer. A bit like the gagging order he put on Paul Mitchell…
Replied in the wrong place. Anyway jump aboard the right blue&white train. Chooo choooo🌚🌚
Yep, it’s not going to happen either…
My teams gonna smash it and so is my boy
OK then. Is it OK to believe that my grandson will do as well as I expect him to and that he as a 13 year old won’t be running “county lines” within a year? I lot of hope and faith I know.
Against teams with bigger wages, better players that cost more to buy? World class match winners like Hazard etc etc in the Cup final. Liverpool’s world record fee defender and goalie they got in for Klopp etc?
I hate to put a downer on things but no, unless the manager is backed at least to some comparable level to our rivals, we’ll conquer fack all…
OK. Poch is a don and Jose and levy are bums. We are not going to “CONQUER”. I feel down now.
Ok, I’ll wait. For what?
This particular blog subject is about Poch’s take on what he achieved at Spurs. I’m not speaking in general terms, I’m speaking about Poch’s comments and why he’s spot on.
Find another manager who’d do better on that budget, Jose won’t and he isn’t yet either…
History is facts” no?
We will, while ENIC are there. 100%
Facts, you don’t seem to like them much…
Read the first bla bla bla paragraph and I was done.
And if we don’t?
I doubt the owners, they run the club. If we fail it’s their fault, nobody else’s…
What was it Don king said “never leave the building after a fight with the loser”
What this piece fails to address or even acknowledge is the financial constraints Poch and his staff were working under, compared to those ‘wot won trophies’.
During Poch’s five seasons at Spurs the net spend on the team was SEVENTEENTH in the league. Just think about that for a moment, before blabbing on about trophies.
Think about the context here, no really actually think about it rather than saying not winning pots made Poch some sort of crushing failure. It’s not even a blot on his copybook in my opinion given the budget.
Now, please also really try your hardest to think about the wage bill of the squad Poch worked with, relative to our rivals. Our wage bill was and still remains SEVENTH highest in the league.
Just to further add to the context here for some of you unable to process this mentally, if I may; that’s 95m a year less on wages than Liverpool, 150m less a year than Utd and 65m a year less than even flipping Ar5ena1.
One more factor to throw into all of this context is the fact that we played WITHOUT a home ground for almost two full seasons.
Oh, and while we’re at it we may as well mention signing nobody (the only club in any of the worlds top divisions to do so) for a whole calendar year.
I am 100% in agreement with Poch and his reasoning, in fact anyone who who can put together a tangible argument backed by facts that will undermine what he’s said is welcome to put it forward.
Poch did a phenomenal job at Spurs and he will go to Utd, be backed properly and those bemoaning Poch’s lack of ‘twoofees’ will give their right arm to get him back. Because one thing’s for sure, Levy won’t be having a spend up anytime soon.
17th net spend Poch, our best manager since Burkinshaw, and he never got the league placings, and he had a home ground too…
Fk him I say. Shout going out to Ramos and raincoat man
Come with some original lyrics man
“Net spends” bla bla bla. Change the 8 track mate. Doesn’t it get boring living in the past. TRY TO ENJOY THE NOW AND THE FUTURE MATE
The richest football club in the world gonna be in TOTTENHAM LONDON. You wait.
“COME TO CONQUER ” all chairman are scared of what levy has come to do. Can imagine a few year’s back chairman laughing at levy with his little self and his little money. They’re only laughing at one thing now. Where do you think that smug look comes from. He gonna “shut up” nuff people. He gonna be ruthless at the top.
I dare anyone to doubt TOTTENHAM. any fk’r!!!
I got a bit “anti poch” coz fans were wasting support supporting him while the new manager and our team needed that support. I thought and still do think that that was bloody “stupid” I let them know how I felt too. I Might a been a bit heavy handed with it though but hey. “Stand FIIIIIRM” with your beliefs. Stand “fiiiiirm” by your team.
Like I said before ” i never spare sorrow for those who ” eat finer food and drinks finer wine than me” he’ll still be OK on his journey. Wish him well though. Oh. And healthy .
I agree, once we got to the semi’s he should have been able to get a trophy with the talent we had. That is the biggest failure of Poch. I hope he has learned from his mistakes. He fell to his own ideals. He didn’t raise his game and had to be moved on. I’m thankful for what he did for the club and wish him well.
So you would rather him air their dirty laundry publicly? To each there own. I believe we all new he was happy with his players but knew he needed competition to push players to higher levels. If they weren’t raising their game then he wanted them moved on and new players brought in. Levy would not buy unless players were sold that’s the way its been for how long? The new stadium didn’t change that. Techinically Levy didn’t lie about that. Poch figured why bring in players with less quality than what he had, because they would not push the starters. He needed proven quality brought in and Levy and the board wouldn’t change their policy. We didn’t need Poch to say that in a presser we knew that by what was going on. I think it showed the class that Poch has not to publicly throw Levy under the bus. As much as I would have loved to hear it. Poch knows doing so will not help him finding another job. No one wants to be publicly denounced by an employee for being the reason for failure. He wants a top job in EPL and he is now the class manager who Levy handcuffed. Not the manager who blames his problems on his boss. Its all PR. I know Poch made mistakes and could have done some things better. That is true of every manager in professional sports.
He, Poch, brought into empty transfer windows. He’s as complicit as Levy and uncle Joe in why we are where we are.
Veiled nonsense about bravery that he later said didn’t mean what we all thought it meant confirms that complicity.
Nice bloke, but nice blokes rarely win stuff.
He often made “odd” statements which irritated the hell out of me, he never convinced me he was a winner with comments trivialising the domestic cups etc. We were good enough to reach semis and even a final, and those are the games that show the true quality and ability of managers that can motivate , and that is where Poch fails for me.
Mourinho would never have put up with all that baloney. If Levy doesn’t get his act together in summer windows (within reason) José will declare it an impossible task.
EVERYONE is a chequebook manager, by the way. EVERYONE.
I’m not sure I spotted him in the pressers he was happy. If anything he looked liked he was sleeping in his car!
My thoughts on Poch are aimed at those seeking to airbrush history. He sat there saying “I berry happy” and as a result won nothing.
It was his job to talk to Levy, and he didn’t. Sad but true.
I don’t understand the anti Poch slant that has developed on this website. Billy Nick was backed by the board with transfer funds, Poch was not. He urged the board to be brave, they were anything but. Having gone 100% over budget, Levy stated that the stadium costs would not impact the club’s transfer spending. This was a barefaced lie. If Levy had managed to sell Dembele for £30 mill, Toby for £75 mill and CE for in excess of £100 mill, then those funds might have been used to buy new players, but our legendary chairman overvalued these players and the consequences are there for all the supporters to see. I think you would be better off venting your dissatisfaction on the lack of silverware at the real culprit.
What I would like to know in clear terms is what Mourinho would have made of playing at Wembley, missing transfer windows entirely, having many players disgruntled because they were not paid market rates and taking on the Spurs squad that Poch developed into regular CL football, a clear remit from Levy.
Mourinho has always been a cheque book manager, buying proven, often ageing stars. His record of dispensing with young talent is legendary, for all the wrong reasons. Would love to see De Bruyne in a Spurs midfield, but I guess I rate him more than Jose did.
Using the disaffected and failed manager Souness for support does little for anyone’s argument.
Never won titles or cups because he never had
enough quality players to do it. Whose fault that was is another question. For all his faults no one can say that he didn’t give us the best team, best results and best football since Bill Nicholson. That is in the past now, if Jose can better Pochs record we will be celebrating winning things.
None of Mourinho’s title wins were at clubs with the lowest net spend in the league.
He also declared himself happy with his first levy window, despite having complained beforehand that there were no strikers at the world’s 6th richest club.