Mauricio Pochettino has suggested it is unfair to assess his time at Tottenham solely based on his failure to win a trophy.
The Argentine led us to four successive top-four finishes, a Champions League and League Cup final and three more domestic cup semi-finals, but could never get us over the line for the first piece of silverware since 2008.
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However, in an exclusive interview with The Guardian, Pochettino argued that managers’ achievements must be judged within the context of the club they are in charge of, and not simply on how many trophies they win, otherwise “90%” of managers in the game would be branded as losers.
He did add though that he still has plenty of time to lift major honours.
“Look at [Claudio] Ranieri,” Poch told The Guardian. “He won his first title at Leicester when he was nearly at the end of his career. People can say he wasn’t a successful coach but … [he is]. The problem is that we are not a coaching staff that started at Bayern Munich. If you do that, it’s completely different to if you start at Nürnberg, with all respect to Nürnberg.
“If we talk like this then 90% of coaches in the world are losers. Coaches are not thinking only about winning titles. There are many other things around. You find the motivation and capacity to choose the right project. People can measure successful people in different ways.”
Pochettino is spot on here. If football is merely about winning trophies then we are dismissing 99% of the game. You may be judged by trophies won at Manchester United, or nowadays Manchester City, but, by modern Spurs standards, that is inequitable. Poch was brought in to put us in that conversation and exceeded expectations. By the same modern standards, he is our most successful coach of the last 30 years; trophies or not.
Some $hit head keeps voting my comments down, and it’s the same $hit head every time. I know, because that’s the kind of thing $hit heads do… 😂
ENIC OUT.
This old story about his target being Top 4 for the new stadium keeps resurfacing and I have never heard Levy call him a liar.
Absolute turds run the club there will always be a reason for not spending on players now just as pre stadium.
Just get out of my club and take the clappers with you to Orient or wherever you end up.
Liverpool are not as rich as United, City or Chelsea but they bought wisely after being behind us. Proves that we could spend whats required for right positions. Also their manager is boss not the board
I feel Pochs comparison with Nurnberg etc Is almost right, he argues Spurs had a lack of recent success so less expectation. But there was no need for this lack, it has been the fault of ENIC for 20 years & boards beforehand. Also this chronic inferiority complex , that must come from the manager
100% correct.
Our net spend and wage expenditure is embarrassing and woefully low compared to clubs that we even finished above under Poch. The Liverpool comparison is key to the whole discussion, we were better than them three seasons ago. Their owners spent to change that and look where they are now.
We can all say an ‘opportunity missed’ for us but Levy will see it more as ‘bullet dodged’ financially. Whenever we’ve got close to being a trophy winning side Levy has pulled the plug.
He even did it after we won the League Cup in 08, “that’ll do the fans for at least another 10 years, that’s Glory for these desperate mugs, they should count themselves lucky…”
ENIC OUT.
Poch is a MASSIVE loser
Sorry, success in sport is about what you win. Not what you nearly win. Record books, history books show your name and what you won. That’s why there are only a small
number of successful sports men and women in the world in their given sport. It’s that we aspire to. Nobody aspires to be second or an almost made it.
I do agree some success is measured by what you managed with the resources available. So yes, Poch had a modicum of success at Spurs. He’ll be remembered by many for that night at Ajax. Bit like Gazza’s free kick against Woolwich in the cup final. His most notable achievement in a Spurs shirt.
Poch will always have cult status at Spurs that’s a good thing.
Absolutely right. The best manager for me since Keith Burkinshaw. We were ahead of Liverpool three seasons ago. They decided to back their manager by revamping their transfer strategy which included their recruitment model. Furthermore, they backed the manager by buying the players he wanted. Having achieved success on the pitch, they will now spend money on extending their stadium capacity. We have done the reverse and have no money for new players, consequently hamstringing the new manager who we hired hoping he could bring silverware without spending any money. Given the funds at his disposal, Poch did remarkably well, to the extent that the fans came to expect a top four finish every season. When he warned the board to be brave in the transfer market, he was ignored. Ergo, our current predicament. There is only one man to blame here.