Given the challenges that Tottenham have faced since Mauricio Pochettino’s 2019 departure, the better the Argentine’s five-year tenure in charge of the club looks.
Appointed by chairman Daniel Levy as Spurs’ tenth manager in a 12-year span in May 2014, Pochettino departed in November 2019, having led the club to top-five finishes in each of his seasons in charge and came close to leading the club to their first Champions League final, when his side were beaten by Liverpool in the 2019 final.
This combination of progress, promise and near-misses made his spell one of the most debated managerial stints in recent history, one which Pochettino himself still reflects on.
Pochettino on his Tottenham highs and lows
“It was almost six years of work in which I wasn’t just a coach,” he tells FourFourTwo when asked how it felt to be sacked just five months after the Champions League final.
“I’d arrive with my staff at 7am and leave at 10pm, often alongside Daniel Levy. We’d walk out asking ourselves how we could improve this or that. Our life was Tottenham, but that level of intensity also contributed to how it ended.
“I felt disappointed, of course, but I understand that for him it was also a difficult decision to make.”
As well as making the final of Europe’s biggest competition, Pochettino’s Spurs also lost the 2015 League Cup final and were Premier League runners-up in 2016/17, adding to the club’s near-misses under the former Southampton boss.
“It hurts because of the expectations and the momentum that built around us,” Pochettino adds when asked if failing to winning a trophy hurt.
“However, when we first spoke with Levy about the project, the plan was to equip the club with the best facilities in the world. At the same time, we wanted to build a team capable of challenging the biggest clubs in England within five years. Because we were so far ahead in the sporting process compared to the infrastructure side, huge expectations were created – and perhaps not enough value was given to what we actually achieved.
“For a period of time, having a new stadium was more important than winning a title – the club’s financial focus was on that. Even so, we delivered strong results. In my view, those years should be spoken about as a huge success.”
That elusive trophy came in Pochettino’s next managerial stint, when he won the French Super Cup shortly after his appointment at Paris Saint-Germain in January 2021.
“It wasn’t a relief – it came with the responsibility of having to win it with the players I had at PSG,” he continues. “The external perception of a coach changes once he wins a trophy, but that doesn’t always reflect his journey.
“It’s a bit unfair to draw that parallel – that the one who wins does everything right and the one who loses does everything wrong.”