The Mauricio Pochettino thread

[Grey Fox]

Two things,

1) The club and Poch can't refute any rumour yet, because there has been no official approach.

2) From what I have been told, I would back him to stay for a couple of more seasons at least. Lets put it this way if he goes to Utd this summer I will be done with football

 

[doctor stefan Freud]

Two things,

1) The club and Poch can't refute any rumour yet, because there has been no official approach.

2) From what I have been told, I would back him to stay for a couple of more seasons at least. Lets put it this way if he goes to Utd this summer I will be done with football

Thanks, GF

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

If United were brave they’d find their own Pochettino. There must be 4 or 5 across Europe with the same potential Poch had at Southampton. Eddie Howe to start with, yes be brave but that’s just what we did and it paid off. They just always seem to take the obvious path with managers and players.

Shit flows downhill, Southampton found their Pochettino, we took him and that's no different to what United are trying to do. Brave doesn't come into it IMO.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

Lets put it this way if he goes to Utd this summer I will be done with football

Now that's brave

 

[Jack2]

How far down the list of players Poch wanted was Moura is a question I'd love to know the answer to.

Moura's situation at PSG makes me think it was a Levy special gamble of a transfer trying to ensure a bit of profit in a resale.

Backing a manager is getting them the players they want, United do that, we don't.

Oh it sounds so easy. Just get the players your manager wants. Sometimes people seem to forget that there are other parties and things involved as well like the other team (who might not sell), the player himself (who might not want to sign for us), player's family etc. etc. Or perhaps sometimes the player your manager wants is just too expensive. That's why I rather think that backing your manager is trying to get them the players they want (which is of course only one of the many ways to back the manager). I do not know if Levy has done that and I suspect that no one here does. But Poch just signed a new, long contract and according to his interviews on their relationship with Levy, he doesn't seem to be unhappy.

 

[wishkah]

Great points CoYS.

My worry with OGS is that he's repeating Fergie words like hairdryer in the press. They want to recreate that error when the smart thing to do is to generate a new version. Sadly poch could do that but if they took a punt on the next Poch that would be even better for them.

 

[wishkah]

Two things,

1) The club and Poch can't refute any rumour yet, because there has been no official approach.

2) From what I have been told, I would back him to stay for a couple of more seasons at least. Lets put it this way if he goes to Utd this summer I will be done with football

This is why you are my favourite fox. Some of the other fans are like 'red fox had a much shinnier coat" and "Auban Fox could be Jack Wills mascot".

But for me grey fox is the best fox

 

[The Doc]

I am so proud to be a Tottenham fan right now, poch is a major part of that.

He demands workrate
He demands loyalty
He demands camaeraderi
He demands ethics
He demands love
He improves players
He makes a team

I for one would be incredibly disappointed to see him go and the reality is that he would take united back to the top.

I think poch has a free reign at Tottenham and levy backed him when things were difficult, levy is honest with poch and he is probably the first manager he will back unequivocally.

I feel he is frustrated this season but I think he will stay, I really feel he is spurs at the moment, he can create something wonderful here and soon.

He is the best choice for united and the only manager capable of repeating Fergusons feat, he is that good.

If he does go to united then I will put him down as the best spurs manager in my lifetime and I will wish him all the best.

Really? I sincerely hope he has been misinterpreted if that is the case.


p

 

[JCRD]

The whole will he won't he argument to me comes down to one fundamental point and that is that Poch preaches trust ;faith ; loyalty ; 100% commitment.
If Poch turns his back on us the last four years he has been spinning the players and fans a lie a myth.
I like to think this man is the real deal with integrity and loyalty but and its a big but loyalty is thin on the ground these days.
Some say "I will not blame or hold it against him if he goes to United" well I for one would hold it against him and it would be up there with the betrayal of Judas the reason I would hold it against him is that I have brought into his "trust ; faith ; loyalty ; commitment "mantra.I have to keep the faith and trust in Poch to do the right thing by Spurs.

Youre right, but what if Levy had let him down in the summer and in January and in the next summer? Now we dont know the finer details but if there is no money etc and Poch was promised funds - then what does Poch do? Trust, faith, loyalty works both ways.

He will stay, i have some doubt but i just keep telling myself there is no way he will leave just yet. At some point he will leave but perhaps two or three years when he has exhausted his powers here at Spurs.

 

[Reprobate]

What specifically do people think Poch would leave us for?
More money on transfers? More long term chance of winning trophies?

People say when he eventually goes it will be to Madrid. But I could see why Poch wouldn't fancy that. He values longevity and the chance to build something. If he does go to a top club, obviously he loses the longevity we offer him. But perhaps at United he'd be offered a long enough crack of the whip, and he has faith in himself to win something in that time frame, then go on to build long term.

I still choose to believe he'll stay with us for at least another couple of years. It's just annoyingly it's easy to see why the United job is actually a good fit for him. Don't believe it's the poisoned chalice I've heard some people making out.

 

[cockerel downunder]

He could spend a lot of money at utd and still not end up with players as good and as committed to the cause as Kane and dele

Also I think the pre glazer utd would have been the perfect club for Poch, but if you just look at then since the glazers arrived they look quite a different prospect for a manager who values integrity.

On balance I think he will stay as he is so invested in this squad. I think it would really help to add a couple of promising young English players in jan that he will want to mould. Sessegnon perhaps, Fulham May need cash for experienced reinforcements. Lee cook or grealish perhaps.

It’s a really tough one to call. On one had I can see poch as the perfect successor to fergie, and what manager wouldn’t want that, on the other hand he’s got our squad just how he wants it now and in the verge of greatness.

I think it all depends on whether he thinks he’s taken us as far as he can. That’s when he’ll go

 

[Paolo10]

Backing a manager is also:

• Giving new contracts to all his key staff before even him.
• Supporting him when he ostracises high profile, high earning footballers and then selling them.
• Tying down key plays to long contracts continuously with renewals happening each season.
• Changing the management structure in line with his ambitions.
• And infitinely more things which we won’t be privy to that go beyond a chairman-manager relationship.

The transfer window, while important, is not the sole platform available to backing the manager.

Getting players on longer contracts protects potential transfer fees and minimises the risk of losing players via Bosman, it's far from being all about the manager as is selling unwanted players etc. (Who maybe wouldn't have needed to be sold if they were higher up any list of targets).

None of this will stop Poch from leaving if he decides he wants to.

It's all going to come down to how DL and MP's relationship has been and just because Poch is being very professional and toeing a clear line doesn't mean everything is great, again I hope it is.

Has he been able to build the squad he wants/needs well enough under Levy? Have promises been kept? Can we match Poch's ambitions for the club? That's what will decide it IMO.

 

[Mate]

I personally feel that Poch doesn’t want to spell it out for the fans (that he’s staying) as he probably feels that everything he’s done/said over the last 4 1/2 years should speak for itself. Not everything needs to be black and white - like how the Sopranos ended (won’t spoil it for anyone that hasn’t seen it!)

 

[spursrayray]

Poch telling Sky Sports

"We are going to have one of the best facilities in the world, the training ground with the new stadium,"

"On the football side, all that we are building here will be in the same level. When you add and mix it all together it is going to be the time to win titles and deliver what the people expect.

"We still have not won a trophy, but I think we have won more than that, because after four-and-a-half-years' work together, to have a contract for another four-and-a-half years is a massive achievement in the current climate. To create that is a massive achievement for us.

"The platform that we have created here in Tottenham is the most important, the platform we created between all the coaching staff - in the academy and the first team. The platform we created is more important than one person.

 

[Tottenhamboy85]

Poch telling Sky Sports

"We are going to have one of the best facilities in the world, the training ground with the new stadium,"

"On the football side, all that we are building here will be in the same level. When you add and mix it all together it is going to be the time to win titles and deliver what the people expect.

"We still have not won a trophy, but I think we have won more than that, because after four-and-a-half-years' work together, to have a contract for another four-and-a-half years is a massive achievement in the current climate. To create that is a massive achievement for us.

"The platform that we have created here in Tottenham is the most important, the platform we created between all the coaching staff - in the academy and the first team. The platform we created is more important than one person.

While it does seem a positive article the last paragraph can be taken as Tottenham can carrying on without him.

 

[Hotspur33]

To keep it brief.

Am I worried he might go?: Yes
Would I be surprised if he stayed?: No
Would we survive without him?: Yes.

The pull of United is obvious, however he may feel that it could scupper any plans of managing either Madrid or PSG. So he may be content to stay at Spurs until the time is right for one of the 2 aforementioned clubs.

 

[kr1978]

Good article in The times today from Henry Winter, I read it old school in an actual news paper so don’t have a link but basically he is saying that Pochettino should stay at Spurs and ignore Man Utd and Real Madrid as we are a better run and more stable club, also says that we are a bigger better club than Man Utd at the moment

 

[Spurslove]

To say we won't listen to offers for the manager is tantamount to saying that Poch is a Tottenham slave for the next four and a half years. Whilst I would personally welcome that arrangement, it's not how the world works.

Likewise, Poch isn't in a realistic position to say that he won't leave in the summer... not in public anyway. What if we sack him? What if he gets ill or some other reason to leave (that isn't the United job) crops up?

As far as we are aware there has been no approach for Poch yet. That isn't to say it's not coming, but it demonstrates how much of a media frenzy there is based on nothing more than speculation. The club could say that we aren't interested in "selling" Poch to anybody but it won't stop the stories and it won't stop United from making an approach if and when they do. The current media wank fest is just that.

Nobody will give a shit about it next week because it's Christmas. Then attention turns to the Boxing Day fixtures, then it's the City vs. Liverpool game, then it's the Carabao semis. Then January 13th we will get it all again when Poch craps all over Solskjaer before the Carabao second legs. Then it's City playing Arsenal and Chelsea back to back before the Carabao final and whatever FA cup games are happening. Then it's the run in, then the FA cup final, then more speculation about Poch to United.

Then once all that has passed a bunch of men and women will meet behind closed doors to decide who will manage Spurs and who will manage United next season.

EDIT: you can probably throw in Poch speculation when we move into the new stadium and when ourselves and United drop out of the CL as well. When United fall out of the FA cup and are mathematically out of the top four it will be there too. It's gonna happen and no amount of statements from club or manager will prevent it.

I was just bemoaning the fact that we're going to have to put up with this non-story for possibly the next six months and every pundit worth his weight in bullshit is going to stick the knife in until such time as it becomes patently clear that it's not going to happen. Every time Poch sits before a press conference, he's going to be bombarded with questions about his future. The daily rags and Sky Sports are not going to let go of this. The more they push it, the more the speculation grows and the more the speculation grows, the more people will believe it and the more people will tune in to Sky Sports and chuck their gambling money at SkyBet, and all the while, pundits on shows like The Debate who know absolutely nothing more than any of us...are going to say Poch must go to United and so it continues. We all know how this is going to pan out by now.

Unfortunately, we can't walk around with our heads stuck between two pillows shouting 'Naaaaa Naaaaa Naaaaa I'm not listening...' (maybe some of you will, I don't know) Sadly, we can't turn our ears off.

 

[thelak]

Everyone talks about Utd being one of the biggest clubs in the world - essentially because if two specific eras in their history - can’t argue they are a huge club

Comes down to whether Poch is such a dreamer and has been told by Levy he will be able to invest properly in the future whether he thinks he can turn us into a club of a similar stature in the future

I think he’s a dreamer but would like Levy to make it easier for him by backing him more visibly in the transfer market soon

 

[worcestersauce]

Poch telling Sky Sports

"We are going to have one of the best facilities in the world, the training ground with the new stadium,"

"On the football side, all that we are building here will be in the same level. When you add and mix it all together it is going to be the time to win titles and deliver what the people expect.

"We still have not won a trophy, but I think we have won more than that, because after four-and-a-half-years' work together, to have a contract for another four-and-a-half years is a massive achievement in the current climate. To create that is a massive achievement for us.

"The platform that we have created here in Tottenham is the most important, the platform we created between all the coaching staff - in the academy and the first team. The platform we created is more important than one person.

Just reading this and I realise I've not understood the true significance of the five year contract we've given him, he's right, managers don't get that kind of contract, what we've said to him is that we have complete faith in him and his project which is exactly what he asked for.
What we need to do now, Mr Levy, is up the anti, I'm sure we started that in the summer with his contract and the increased contracts to players although we didn't do what I thought we'd do and bring in the players to improve us, I'm more and more convinced that the stadium problems took our focus off that target so I'm hopeful we'll pick that baton up in the new year and carry it beyond.
Overall that interview gives me the impression he feels we are really on the springboard and just about to take off, it certainly doesn't sound like the end of the road and that is not accidental, Poch is a clever guy and knows exactly what he's saying and the message he wants to convey. Another thing occurs to me, why would you give SSN a one to one interview, I'd have told them to bugger off but then I'm a dumb schmuk, this is obviously the quid pro quo, we give them the interview and they stop asking the question.