Home » Pochettino reveals how two of his players saved him from early Spurs sack

Pochettino reveals how two of his players saved him from early Spurs sack

By Bruce Grove -

Mauricio Pochettino was fired by Tottenham late last year after five years at the club.

The Argentinean manager changed the style of play at the club and although he didn’t deliver a trophy, he laid the groundwork for another manager to do just that.

After leading the club to the final of the Champions League in 2019, he was expected to make the club even better in the following campaign.

But that never happened and he was instead fired by the club last season and replaced by Jose Mourinho.

He has now revealed that he probably would have been sacked earlier if not for Harry Kane and Nacer Chadli.

His Tottenham reign didn’t start off on the best note and the club struggled in his first ten games in charge.

In one of those games against Aston Villa, Spurs were losing 1-0 with six minutes of normal time to go.

The Argentinean said he had told his coaching staff that they should prepare to be sacked, but things turned around with goals from Chadli and Kane turning the game into a 2-1 win, and it became a turning point for his time at Spurs.

“That day we were 1-0 down, difficult game, and in a moment I turned to Jesus, Miguel and Toni and said ‘I think we need to prepare the bag and go back to Barcelona’,” he revealed on Sky Sport’s Monday Night Football as quoted by HITC.

“Then some energy appeared and said ‘wait we need time’.

“Then we win the game with Chadli the scorer and then Harry Kane the free-kick.”

Tags harry kane Mauricio Pochettino Nacer Chadli NewsNow
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East Stand
East Stand
3 years ago
Reply to  DannyG

Whatever money was available for transfers obviously wasn’t enough to bring the targets in that he felt would improve the side.

I agree that at one time it was hard to improve the team. However, what it needed was depth in quality and freshening up, the money clearly wasn’t ‘there’ for that at the time (which I don’t believe). Which is why things went stale.

This is despite Champions League revenues coming in four years running. Unless that money was going towards the stadium, what exactly happened to it? If it went on the stadium then what could Poch do about that?

He coached us extremely well considering the backing, anyone who disagrees with that, I can’t help but only feel sorry for…

East Stand
East Stand
3 years ago
Reply to  England Mike

By selling your best players at that time to buy players to replace them? Is that what Klopp had to do? A manager that is backed adds quality and depth without having to sell the players who are currently performing.

If the new players force them out the team then that’s the exact improvement intended. Not quite sure what you’re on about…

England Mike
England Mike
3 years ago
Reply to  East Stand

Hang on, the team was doing so well you couldn’t improve it ?
Then why didn’t it win a trophy or two ?

Spurs est1882
Spurs est1882
3 years ago
Reply to  East Stand

I agre.

DannyG
DannyG
3 years ago
Reply to  East Stand

Sure Levy is in charge of handling tranfers but you think Poch didn’t get a big say in what went on? You think Levy wouldn’t have sold Eriksen and Rose if Poch said they should be sold? My point is that Poch would have had a big say in managing his squad but faced with no massive cash injection he threw his hands up in the air rather than find a better way to manage it.

I do like Poch and I think he did a brilliant job for us, but in this aspect I think he messed up and eventually paid the price for it.

East Stand
East Stand
3 years ago
Reply to  DannyG

Levy was in charge of all that, Poch said it at the time and it’s confirmed in the terrible reality TV show Levy was so keen to do. Levy wouldn’t even let him go for a penny under 15m in the end so what would he have been like two years before when Eriksen was playing well?

Levy was too busy with the stadium to bother about the football, the Eriksen contract etc was just one example of it. You cant our that one down to Poch I’m afraid . Poch wasn’t perfect, he had his quirks but I’d have him back whenever he wants to come back.

DannyG
DannyG
3 years ago
Reply to  East Stand

When Eriksen refused to sign a contract with 2 years to go, he should have been sold. His stock was high and he would have raised a high sum. Rose could have fetched a good fee at that time too. We could have raised £100m from these two and spent it on strengthening. That would have kept the squad fesh and helped to avoid the rot that subsequently set in.

Yes they were settled players but when you say no to a new contract alarm bells should be ringing. better to get rid immediately and replace.

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago
Reply to  DannyG

Poch ain’t got any connections (coulda brought in a few loan ballers) he can’t hustle in this ting

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago
Reply to  England Mike

Rubbish CV that’s why.

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago
Reply to  East Stand

He backed him coz we could afford too (n€w lan€. You’re too stupid to understand levy

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago
Reply to  East Stand

Exactly. Poch knew from the off there wouldn’t be much money to spend on transfers. There was no way he could pressure levy (he knew) he didn’t “find a way around it” that’s why he Won nothing..

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago
Reply to  East Stand

Should we name a stand after him? So what if he loves Tottenham? So do I plus millions of others do too. “Disgraceful? Yep as in in all that time he won fk all. Disrespectful” as in he said if he did win something (the CL) he’d leave. How do you know another manager wouldn’t have got us playing real Madrid? And actually win Tottenham something. Praise no thanks yes. I remember having his back when he was here while most of you now poch groupie’s were coating him off.

East Stand
East Stand
3 years ago
Reply to  DannyG

So he’d have to sell players in a settled team to buy?

When Rose and Eriksen were worth anything decent, the team was doing well so that wouldn’t have improved the team or the squad depth whatsoever. If you’re talking about Rose and Eriksen in the last couple of years I doubt you’d have got 35m for the pair.

Eriksen’s contract was running down and Rose was gradually going off the boil. We needed strengthening without selling the important players, which is what Jose got.

DannyG
DannyG
3 years ago
Reply to  East Stand

If he sold Eriksen and Rose he would have have money to spend.

England Mike
England Mike
3 years ago

The only way to prove if this man is any good, is to see how he performs at the next club he gets to manage, which is noticeably taking it’s time when you consider his reputed lofty reputation , so you have to question why nobody is knocking on his door .

East Stand
East Stand
3 years ago

Poch loves Tottenham and doesn’t care who knows it. Anyone slagging this guy off should be ashamed of themselves.

If it weren’t for him we wouldn’t even have been playing Real Madrid, let alone beating them. You slag a guy off who got your club to its highest consecutive league positions in our history and you need to seek help.

Disgraceful and disrespectful to the club firstly, let alone Pochettino… go and support Cheatski, they’ll have you.

East Stand
East Stand
3 years ago
Reply to  DannyG

When Bale came in Poch was asked about it and he said “this just wasn’t possible while the stadium was being built”.

So from that, one can surely ascertain that the transfer situation was out of his hands. The way he coached found a way around it…

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago
Reply to  East Stand

You are wrong very often. “Fact’s? All you know about Tottenham is the $h!7 you read on the internet. Poch praisers are embarrassing. You can try to sound as clever as you like. I still know you ain’t clever. $h!t fan too.

East Stand
East Stand
3 years ago
Reply to  Eddie

100% correct. The Poch haters haven’t even got their facts right. Usually a basic requirement in any discussion! 😂

East Stand
East Stand
3 years ago
Reply to  mikey hughes

I’m still convinced that Levy thought that only signing three unpolished players last summer was going to be enough to reinvigorate the squad. Certainly enough to get top four, without more signings and also a season to rebuild it was impossible.

Levy pinned sacking Poch on the hope Jose could get top four with virtualy the same resources. Jose has a word in Levy’s ear and told him “you must back me this summer”. Levy listened finally…

East Stand
East Stand
3 years ago

Gotta like his honesty. He’s clearly a very genuine person, determined to do things his way but a genuine bloke who clearly wears his heart on his sleeve…

DannyG
DannyG
3 years ago

I’m surprised many seem to believe Poch was blameless in the squad going stale. I think it’s highly probable that levy made some money available but not loads, and that he could add whatever was made on player sales. Now I do like Poch but he messed up here. He should’ve sold Eriksen for top dollar when he wouldn’t sign a new contract (and Rose while his stock was higher, added the money from Levy and refreshed the squad with a few players. His failure to recognise what he needed to do here given the circumstances cost him his job. And he did have to go.

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago
Reply to  Eddie

Was offered about £20/30 mil. He thought that couldn’t buy any better than he had already.

Eddie
Eddie
3 years ago
Reply to  Tappaspur

I seem to recall Levy saying the stadium build would not impact transfer dealings.

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago
Reply to  mikey hughes

Backed him with what? We were building a stadium. Levy didn’t choose not to back him. Our finance’s dictated it.

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago
Reply to  East Stand

Don’t you mean if levy wasn’t off doing what it took to compete in the transfer market now you mean. (Players and wages. Kane and son wouldn’t be here now if he didn’t. Poch didn’t have it in him to juggl€ the squad. He knows he fkd up. He couldn’t manage

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
3 years ago
Reply to  mikey hughes

No one knows if poch with backing woulda done any better. Probably still woulda played his favorites. He had a fantastic team at one stage. Anyway we’ll see what he’s made of in his next job

mikey hughes
mikey hughes
3 years ago
Reply to  East Stand

I agree, Levy failed to back a top manager and even he couldn’t continue the miracles. Had Levy of backed him the way he has backed Mou, then I think we would have kicked on.
When you think of Poch’s crappy bench and lack of back up players for many positions, he greatly outperformed with what he had. I loved his style of football and we routinely blew teams away. It remains to be seen whether our new boss can be as successful. For sure we’ll never be as entertaining to watch.
But as Levy chose not to back him, then the only alternative was to let him go sadly.

East Stand
East Stand
3 years ago
Reply to  Spurs est1882

The decline in the football under Poch was exactly in line with the team getting longer in the tooth and stale. We didn’t sign a single player for a year and he STILL got top 4 and to that final.

I’m 100% convinced that had he been backed and Levy had (for some reason) not frozen the football budget while he was off tasting cheese and carpet samples, that events would have been ‘berry’ different.

People that say Poch should have won trophies are forgetting how much we were overachieving anyway.

After Jose came in there was an initial reaction and then the staleness returned. The issue of squad strengthening blighted both Poch and Jose at different times.

Until that was addressed any manager was going to struggle, Jose did too. Ignoring this glaringly obvious issue when discussing Poch’s time towards the end is just ridiculous, then again if it suits your agenda you’ve got a blind spot to it…

Spurs est1882
Spurs est1882
3 years ago
Reply to  ministers cat

I loved Poch, and wish he had been backed, But as he wasnt, Ido agree, he should have gone sooner. I think he would have done great things if he had been backed. I think his loyalty to specific players let him down, but other than that, I dont think he did a lot wrong (mainly Alli, who should have been dropped for the CL final, not Moura).

ministers cat
ministers cat
3 years ago

Enduring (hopefully) a season out of the CL is making me appreciate his efforts but in hindsight for the good of the club Levy probably delayed too long.

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