Mauricio Pochettino

[KingNick]

And it's not like he's pulled up trees since he left, either.

PSG isn't the easiest job for various reasons, but across his tenure their performances had more in common with his disjointed late-era Spurs team than his exciting early-Spurs team. Found this video quite a good summary of his time there, even if it was made by a foetus:

Quite. He had the worst win record there since 2013 and Galtier's is currently better despite the pressure he is under

 

[Timberwolf]

Quite. He had the worst win record there since 2013 and Galtier's is currently better despite the pressure he is under and being 8 points clear at the top of the league.

Seem to recall seeing this image all over Twitter at the time. He really wasn't popular among their fans at all.

 

[rossdapep]

I really think people need to go back and read some of the posts from Poch’s last year. His dinners with Fergie, his “I’m only the coach” press conferences, his stupid book, his inability to chance a game or make a decent sub, etc.

I loved the man but very much rose tinted glasses in here.

He gave us some great times and brought us all together but that last year or so was very irritating watching him 'mood swing' each press conference.

We all know Levy isn't helpful and doesn't back enough but I dont think he thought much about the fans who adored him when he refused to bat away United rumours.

Had to sit through game after game of "Poch would be great at United" from Neville and co cause Poch refused to say he was Tottenham coach and instead just gave some indefinitive answers.

I get he would have been pissed at Levy but he didn't exactly think of how the fans may feel.

I quite frankly his response before the CL final about "I might go home" was childish and showed a loser's mentality.

You put everything aside and focus on the biggest game of your career.

The players must have been so confused hearing him say that.

His insistence on only having Ndombele or De Jong really hurt our progress.

We then had stories, from respected journos by the way, saying he had started to operate a 'big brother' style camp and if players weren't smiling he'd treat it as if they weren't happy.

- He failed to keep Toby happy who had been imperious. After the falling out, his form dropped significantly.

- His insistence on waiting until the 75th minute or so to make subs. It wasn't an issue when we were at peak-Poch but by 17-18 season he wasn't using the squad well and we had numerous games in which we couldn't get going but he refused to do anything about it and we started losing games late on.

- He stopped doing what had made his team so brilliant by using the same older players instead of focusing on energy and abandoned wanting young talent like Maddison etc in favour of getting bigger names.

- His preferred transfers were generally pretty poor.

- As soon as the high intensity press dropped we became poor with the ball, showed a lack of ideas breaking teams down and Poch started getting outfought by other coaches.

- His mismanagement of all of Walker-Peters, Fotyh and Edwards. He overhyped Edwards, he didn't want to loan out Foyth despite him having very little pro experience and he didn't help Walker Peters by making out he was gonna be a well used player only to hardly use him.

- He was using odd methods such as wanting lemon to be everywhere as it had something to do with fending off negativity (if i recall).

- The book was a massive ego trip and I believe he lost a lot of the players due to that. Anything that happens inside the club should stay between you and a player, not released for commercial benefits. He majorly fucked up with that.

He played his part in our downfall too you know!

Now imagine being a player under that previous regime and hearing he's coming back. You are much more likely to recall the bad moments and not wish to experience that again.

He was incredible the first 3 years, best coach I've ever experienced as a spurs fan.

But there's also a lot of water under the bridge there. Coaches make mistakes but thats quite a lot and some are very destructive

 

[KingNick]

He gave us some great times and brought us all together but that last year or so was very irritating watching him 'mood swing' each press conference.

We all know Levy isn't helpful and doesn't back enough but I dont think he thought much about the fans who adored him when he refused to bat away United rumours.

Had to sit through game after game of "Poch would be great at United" from Neville and co cause Poch refused to say he was Tottenham coach and instead just gave some indefinitive answers.

I get he would have been pissed at Levy but he didn't exactly think of how the fans may feel.

I quite frankly his response before the CL final about "I might go home" was childish and showed a loser's mentality.

You put everything aside and focus on the biggest game of your career.

The players must have been so confused hearing him say that.

His insistence on only having Ndombele or De Jong really hurt our progress.

We then had stories, from respected journos by the way, saying he had started to operate a 'big brother' style camp and if players weren't smiling he'd treat it as if they weren't happy.

- He failed to keep Toby happy who had been imperious. After the falling out, his form dropped significantly.

- His insistence on waiting until the 75th minute or so to make subs. It wasn't an issue when we were at peak-Poch but by 17-18 season he wasn't using the squad well and we had numerous games in which we couldn't get going but he refused to do anything about it and we started losing games late on.

- He stopped doing what had made his team so brilliant by using the same older players instead of focusing on energy and abandoned wanting young talent like Maddison etc in favour of getting bigger names.

- His preferred transfers were generally pretty poor.

- As soon as the high intensity press dropped we became poor with the ball, showed a lack of ideas breaking teams down and Poch started getting outfought by other coaches.

- His mismanagement of all of Walker-Peters, Fotyh and Edwards. He overhyped Edwards, he didn't want to loan out Foyth despite him having very little pro experience and he didn't help Walker Peters by making out he was gonna be a well used player only to hardly use him.

- He was using odd methods such as wanting lemon to be everywhere as it had something to do with fending off negativity (if i recall).

- The book was a massive ego trip and I believe he lost a lot of the players due to that. Anything that happens inside the club should stay between you and a player, not released for commercial benefits. He majorly fucked up with that.

He played his part in our downfall too you know!

Now imagine being a player under that previous regime and hearing he's coming back. You are much more likely to recall the bad moments and not wish to experience that again.

He was incredible the first 3 years, best coach I've ever experienced as a spurs fan.

But there's also a lot of water under the bridge there. Coaches make mistakes but thats quite a lot and some are very destructive

And this list isn't even exhaustive! He made it impossible to ever come back, whilst playing to the fans by saying it was his dream to.

 

[spursfan77]

He took a good 6 months to get us going and I think it will be the same there. Hope he fails spectacularly but it could really go either way. Funnily enough it could be Lukaku who is key to another manager's job. Poch will fancy his chances of getting him firing again, but if he cant and they don't buy another striker in the summer then I don't think they will solve many of their goal scoring problems that they had this season. In fact, I think they will look reasonably similar.

 

[McFlash]

I really think people need to go back and read some of the posts from Poch’s last year. His dinners with Fergie, his “I’m only the coach” press conferences, his stupid book, his inability to chance a game or make a decent sub, etc.

I loved the man but very much rose tinted glasses in here.

It's amazing how perfect he has become over the past few years?!
We had a great time with him but he also had a lot of faults, none of which seem to be remembered by many and there's no evidence that he's addressed any of them because all he's done since he left, is psg. A circus in itself.

I'll also add a refusal to loan out youngsters, resulting in us losing a fair few of them and his weird obsession with that bloody diamond formation.

Many people seem to have lost any perspective or objectivity when it comes to Poch. Say anything about him that mentions his flaws and you get labelled "anti-poch".

 

[Finchyid]

He gave us some great times and brought us all together but that last year or so was very irritating watching him 'mood swing' each press conference.

We all know Levy isn't helpful and doesn't back enough but I dont think he thought much about the fans who adored him when he refused to bat away United rumours.

Had to sit through game after game of "Poch would be great at United" from Neville and co cause Poch refused to say he was Tottenham coach and instead just gave some indefinitive answers.

I get he would have been pissed at Levy but he didn't exactly think of how the fans may feel.

I quite frankly his response before the CL final about "I might go home" was childish and showed a loser's mentality.

You put everything aside and focus on the biggest game of your career.

The players must have been so confused hearing him say that.

His insistence on only having Ndombele or De Jong really hurt our progress.

We then had stories, from respected journos by the way, saying he had started to operate a 'big brother' style camp and if players weren't smiling he'd treat it as if they weren't happy.

- He failed to keep Toby happy who had been imperious. After the falling out, his form dropped significantly.

- His insistence on waiting until the 75th minute or so to make subs. It wasn't an issue when we were at peak-Poch but by 17-18 season he wasn't using the squad well and we had numerous games in which we couldn't get going but he refused to do anything about it and we started losing games late on.

- He stopped doing what had made his team so brilliant by using the same older players instead of focusing on energy and abandoned wanting young talent like Maddison etc in favour of getting bigger names.

- His preferred transfers were generally pretty poor.

- As soon as the high intensity press dropped we became poor with the ball, showed a lack of ideas breaking teams down and Poch started getting outfought by other coaches.

- His mismanagement of all of Walker-Peters, Fotyh and Edwards. He overhyped Edwards, he didn't want to loan out Foyth despite him having very little pro experience and he didn't help Walker Peters by making out he was gonna be a well used player only to hardly use him.

- He was using odd methods such as wanting lemon to be everywhere as it had something to do with fending off negativity (if i recall).

- The book was a massive ego trip and I believe he lost a lot of the players due to that. Anything that happens inside the club should stay between you and a player, not released for commercial benefits. He majorly fucked up with that.

He played his part in our downfall too you know!

Now imagine being a player under that previous regime and hearing he's coming back. You are much more likely to recall the bad moments and not wish to experience that again.

He was incredible the first 3 years, best coach I've ever experienced as a spurs fan.

But there's also a lot of water under the bridge there. Coaches make mistakes but thats quite a lot and some are very destructive

Playing Son at left back in and FA Cup semi final still gets me

 

[McFlash]

Playing Son at left back in and FA Cup semi final still gets me

Oh god, I'd forgotten that!
He played Rose in midfield too at one stage, didn't he?

 

[Timberwolf]

Playing Son at left back in and FA Cup semi final still gets me

Argh that was so grim.

IIRC we actually played really well that game too apart from Son's fuck up for the pen. We scored some brilliant goals and dominated the game but Chelsea kept scoring screamers and taking every chance they got.

 

[aussiespursguy]

Galtier has a higher win percentage and they are top of the league by 8 points.

Poch won by 15 points.
Just sayin!

 

[Finchyid]

Argh that was so grim.

IIRC we actually played really well that game too apart from Son's fuck up for the pen. We scored some brilliant goals and dominated the game but Chelsea kept scoring screamers and taking every chance they got.

Yup...still haunts me Matic from miles out. we should have won it that year and the next

 

[Timberwolf]

Yup...still haunts me Matic from miles out. we should have won it that year and the next

Just re-watched the highlights for my sins.

We had 63% possession, 11 corners to their 1, and more shots. Of their 5 shots on target, 4 of those were a pen, a direct FK goal from 25 yards, once-in-a-career piledriver from Matic and, to be fair, a very well taken goal from Hazard after some questionable defending from a corner (their only one).

Fucking Chelsea.

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

The key to Poch's success/failure - watch his first presser.


If Poch shows up wearing his best Diego Simeone Black-on-Black ensemble - it will be a disaster at Chelsea.

If he shows up wearing anything else, he has learned from past mistakes, and he will be a success at Chelsea.

 

[Tucker]

Oh god, I'd forgotten that!
He played Rose in midfield too at one stage, didn't he?

I think that was when we had pretty much no midfielders due to injury.

 

[Dakes]

A job is a job, I can't fault him on that.

But the best I can wish him is that he misses Romero's blows at the next Battle of the Bridge

 

[Marty]

I think that was when we had pretty much no midfielders due to injury.

Remember Rose coming on as a sub in midfield against Real Madrid and helping to see out a win.

Those were the days.

 

[glacierSpurs]

Really hope they can faster announce it. Some of our fans are more concerned with him going there than who should be our manager. And of course we can also finally stop hearing his name being chanted at our games.

 

[rossdapep]

Playing Son at left back in and FA Cup semi final still gets me

Yeah he made a lot of naive tactical errors in his time here.

Those became more evident once the high press energy went from the team


Remember that goal we conceded agaisnt Sheffield United?? They basically walked it in.

I just think without the 'all in' high intensity press, Poch is a very limited coach. We saw that at the start of the 2019 season when he didn't really know what he was doing.

Most would have abondoned the diamond formation after the Bayern thrashing cause it meant we were totally exposed but he kept playing it.

He did have injuries and probably lost some players but he looked lost which was a little concerning as Ndombele was supposed to be a key player going forward.

@mpickard2087 said it best and I felt was very accurate. If you go with Poch you have to give him a fresh young team but then I'm not even sure if Poch would want that anymore.

 

[rossdapep]

...and Im sorry but these 'anti-Poch' claims are just as stupid as being blindly supportive of him.

Most on here are caveating their summary of Poch with his good points.

Its just that rather than think with the heart, we are thinking with ybe head and recalling his downsides, because he most certainly has them.

Like I said before, had Poch gone to someone like Sevilla, Dortmund or Atletico and done brilliantly putting any doubts away, Id probably lean toward him coming back as he would have shown growth and learned from mistakes.

But Poch hasn't done that. In fact, whilst PSG is a basket case, he didn't do a single thing there that showed he has evolved.

Coaches are like players, they have to show evolution too.

Poch has 18 months of experience after us and gave very little evidence of evolution, if any.

In the meantime, loads of brilliant coaches are emerging.

Id say it'd be negligent to ignore all that and just blindly hire Poch

 

[allatsea]

Not at all, not when you put things in context at the time.

Broken promises, Poch was burned out, we all saw that.

Talking to a club isn't the same as interviewing for a post.

If Poch let people know he was speaking to UTD it was more likely to put on pressure on Levy to show he was on demand and could leave.

The fact that is clear for all to see is that Poch loves our club and was gutted to leave.

He was very clear that he wanted a painful rebuild. Since leaving in every interview he speaks highly of the club.

If you really think he was disloyal for talking to another club, when he had a good relationship with Fergie its a little odd, as it happens all the time.

Its not a case that he interviewed for the job and they turned him down so he came back. If so, you'd have a point.

Why was he talking to another club if not because he wanted the job ? Isn't that far more likely than your guess ?