Poch admits 'mistakes' | Vital Football

Poch admits 'mistakes'

Pochettino admits he made mistakes at Tottenham but hints his 'vision' was not accepted by board

The former Tottenham Hotspur boss has taken part in a new interview in Spain and has spoken about the end of his time at the north London club
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  • by Alasdair Gold
  • 10:37, 2 Aug 2020



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Mauricio Pochettino has admitted making mistakes at Tottenham Hotspur but also suggested that "sometimes the vision of a coaching staff is not accepted by the club management".

Five months after leading the club to their first Champions League final, the Argentine was relieved of his duties by chairman Daniel Levy in November and replaced the following morning by Jose Mourinho.

Pochettino has since admitted that his dream is to return to Spurs one day and win them the trophies he was unable to during his five and a half years in north London.

Now, in a new interview with Spanish media outlet El Pais, Pochettino has spoken about his time at the club and the way it all ended last year.

"We live in a results environment where it seems that all the things that have a good result are the ones that serve, but how do you measure what works or not?" he said.

"Only the one who wins or the one who exceeds expectations? After the Champions League final, four years in the top four, two years without signing [new players], a different management strategy was needed.

"Sometimes the vision of a coaching staff is not accepted by the club management. We anticipate what could happen. You need to fall, be down and then go up, but Tottenham made the decision to separate us after five and a half years. I understand that it is a long time."

Pochettino turned down the opportunity to speak to Real Madrid the year before he was sacked by Tottenham but he does not regret the decision and admits that he and his coaching staff made mistakes as well that led Spurs to 14th in the table when he left the club.

"I was happy at Tottenham and I signed a contract and we finished very well, the relationship is impeccable," he said.

"I always say, without false humility, that we too have made mistakes that have led to what happened.

"Although we did expect a little more support or reassurance to reverse the situation, but the club line was going another way and there was wear; respite was needed from both sides."

Pochettino also spoke about how he felt he and his staff played their part on having an influence on English football after first arriving at Southampton and then Spurs.

"It was not easy because one of the first things the [Southampton] president told me was that he signed me because he wanted the team to play as the Dream Team . He showed us a video of that Barça. "This is my philosophy. Apply it!", he said," explained Pochettino.

"[I thought] that Messi, Xavi, Iniesta had to be brought! But the most beautiful thing and what remains is that with those young and English players —Clyne, Lambert, Jay Rodríguez, Prowse, Cork, Lallana, Shaw, Chambers—, we started to propose a different football.

"In the second season, in November, we had the possibility to put ourselves first playing against Arsenal. That attracted attention. It was not the way to press but how we played from behind, with positional attack, retrieve the ball high and attack fast. It was a change of mentality and it was seen that the English could do it.

"I think together with Brendan Rodgers. We changed the mentality of English football a bit and the arrival of Pep later cemented and settled everything because today, in any quarry in the world, what predominates is the capacity of that associative and positional game that has invaded world football. There is no longer the Menotti - Bilardo debate as in his time."

The Argentine was asked whether it was easier to work with young players.

"No, it is the same. We did come to Dele Alli, Kane, but also to Lloris, who after winning with France, left me the World Cup in my office while I was at Tottenham," he said.

"I enjoyed training and that's the key you have to play. Having great players is not incompatible with being humane.

"You earn [respect] with actions, not with what you say."

Now Pochettino must look to the future and he was asked whether he wants a chance to win titles at his next club.

"The coaches misapply that the project finds us. It seems that we demand a project and not. It is to find a club, president or people who go hand in hand with the ideas we have and that we believe can bring you closer to success," he said.

"When that offer arrives, we will all say yes.

"The Premier League has taken advantage in the commercial, the marketing, but La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga are also very powerful, similar.

"We adapted well to the Premier League, but we are open to new challenges and opening another horizon would be enriching."

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Pochettino also spoke about his comment that he would rather go back to Argentina and work on a farm than manage Barcelona or Arsenal.

"WE have to explain it well. I was in Barcelona that year and I met [Barcelona president Josep Maria] Bartomeu in a bar. We greeted each other because we were taking the children to the same school and we were talking for five minutes," he explained.





"That generated a rumour that set off alarms because there were more teams that wanted us, and when they asked me I wanted to settle it drastically.

"I did not want to disrespect Barcelona . You can say things differently. Espanyol has made a name for me, but I'm not arrogant and I didn't like making a statement like that. Maybe now he wouldn't because in life you never know what will happen."
 
For me, this is the key paragraph:

"Sometimes the vision of a coaching staff is not accepted by the club management. We anticipate what could happen. You need to fall, be down and then go up, but Tottenham made the decision to separate us after five and a half years. I understand that it is a long time."

I would say that in the summer of 2017, we all anticipated what COULD happen. 86 points, second in the league and so obvious that in order to get to the next level we needed to do something different. We needed to churn a couple of older players, get some key contracts sorted either way and somehow find a deeper quality in the team and squad whilst losing Walker. I think we all knew a club like Spurs would struggle to do that in the middle of a stadium project. It needed net spending.

So it happened as we all predicted and I'm glad Poch is admitting there were mistakes both sides. It would be nice for Levy to admit the same thing actually.
 
For me, this is the key paragraph:

"Sometimes the vision of a coaching staff is not accepted by the club management. We anticipate what could happen. You need to fall, be down and then go up, but Tottenham made the decision to separate us after five and a half years. I understand that it is a long time."

I would say that in the summer of 2017, we all anticipated what COULD happen. 86 points, second in the league and so obvious that in order to get to the next level we needed to do something different. We needed to churn a couple of older players, get some key contracts sorted either way and somehow find a deeper quality in the team and squad whilst losing Walker. I think we all knew a club like Spurs would struggle to do that in the middle of a stadium project. It needed net spending.

So it happened as we all predicted and I'm glad Poch is admitting there were mistakes both sides. It would be nice for Levy to admit the same thing actually.

That paragraph seems to suggest that the club was not prepared to accept the inevitable, ie that there would be a dip due to lack of investment. Well it happened anyway even with Jose at the helm. I'm not sure Europa league is any salvation of credibility. I laughed at a gooner mate today because they have to play Thursdays and Sundays.
 
That paragraph seems to suggest that the club was not prepared to accept the inevitable, ie that there would be a dip due to lack of investment. Well it happened anyway even with Jose at the helm. I'm not sure Europa league is any salvation of credibility. I laughed at a gooner mate today because they have to play Thursdays and Sundays.

Europa is a great launchpad for fledgling careers. There is not the pressure to keep using the first team and a chance for Jose to embed his tactics across the entire squad. Only another injury crisis can ruin this forthcoming season.
 
Europa is a great launchpad for fledgling careers. There is not the pressure to keep using the first team and a chance for Jose to embed his tactics across the entire squad. Only another injury crisis can ruin this forthcoming season.

Judging by the opposition in the early rounds we can perhaps rest or bench our big guns.
 
For me, this is the key paragraph:

"Sometimes the vision of a coaching staff is not accepted by the club management. We anticipate what could happen. You need to fall, be down and then go up, but Tottenham made the decision to separate us after five and a half years. I understand that it is a long time."

I would say that in the summer of 2017, we all anticipated what COULD happen. 86 points, second in the league and so obvious that in order to get to the next level we needed to do something different. We needed to churn a couple of older players, get some key contracts sorted either way and somehow find a deeper quality in the team and squad whilst losing Walker. I think we all knew a club like Spurs would struggle to do that in the middle of a stadium project. It needed net spending.

So it happened as we all predicted and I'm glad Poch is admitting there were mistakes both sides. It would be nice for Levy to admit the same thing actually.

I don't know how we missed the opportunity to leverage the Walker transfer to our advantage by making Foden part of the deal.
 
The rumor was we tried to make a deal involving Sancho. City weren't playing.

Another shoulda, woulda, coulda window. In reality, Gazza was our first signing followed by Sanchez in mid August. We then followed it up with Aurier, Foyth and Llorente. That used all of the Walker, Bentaleb and Wimmer money to bring us back to zero net spending.

It's one of those "where did it all go wrong?" moments in life :-)
 
Another shoulda, woulda, coulda window. In reality, Gazza was our first signing followed by Sanchez in mid August. We then followed it up with Aurier, Foyth and Llorente. That used all of the Walker, Bentaleb and Wimmer money to bring us back to zero net spending.

It's one of those "where did it all go wrong?" moments in life :-)
Not altogether dissimilar to the Bale saga. We do seem to have a habit of pissing against the wall the money we receive for our best players.
 
Not altogether dissimilar to the Bale saga. We do seem to have a habit of pissing against the wall the money we receive for our best players.

The real sadness of this entire saga is looking at this great team - Lloris, Walker, Toby, Jan, Rose; Wanyama, Dembele; Son, Dele, Eriksen; Kane

5 or 6 have gone and we only got decent money for Walker.

We couldn't even be a great selling club !!!

Anyway, let's look forward not backwards :-)
 
No wonder the players were confused at the end of Poch’s tenure . it doesn’t sound as If even he knew what was going on .

“ having great players is not incompatible with being humane “ I hope that is a lost in translation piece ,!


Now Pochettino must look to the future and he was asked whether he wants a chance to win titles at his next club.

"The coaches misapply that the project finds us. It seems that we demand a project and not. It is to find a club, president or people who go hand in hand with the ideas we have and that we believe can bring you closer to success," he said.

What on earth is he going on about ?
No wonder we were in disarray!

Surely if that was the case , it has to be him and only him that chooses the Incoming players , and not the chairman . It was well documented that we were not going into the transfer market . Was that down to him then , and only him . Pretty poor project planning and application then .
 
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Another shoulda, woulda, coulda window. In reality, Gazza was our first signing followed by Sanchez in mid August. We then followed it up with Aurier, Foyth and Llorente. That used all of the Walker, Bentaleb and Wimmer money to bring us back to zero net spending.

It's one of those "where did it all go wrong?" moments in life :-)

I was so angry after that transfer window. I wasn't surprised but hoped we had changed our ways in the transfer market because we did so well in the league.

Of course it was just another rinse and repeat moment from Levy.

Having said that Poch didn't have the ability in the transfer market to help take us to the next level.
 
The real sadness of this entire saga is looking at this great team - Lloris, Walker, Toby, Jan, Rose; Wanyama, Dembele; Son, Dele, Eriksen; Kane

5 or 6 have gone and we only got decent money for Walker.

We couldn't even be a great selling club !!!

Anyway, let's look forward not backwards :-)

I don't care what anyone says, that first 11 was easily the best in the league. We just didn't have the manager to get them over the line.

Scandalous we didn't win anything with that crop of players.

It's safe to say we didn't replace any of them players with equal quality. Also those that are still here are not as good as they were back then.

Only at Spurs hey!
 
Europa is a great launchpad for fledgling careers. There is not the pressure to keep using the first team and a chance for Jose to embed his tactics across the entire squad. Only another injury crisis can ruin this forthcoming season.
Mutters, it depends on your definition of “ruin”....IMO the continued deployment of Aurier, Davies, Winks and Sissoko will expose us to another season of struggle at best....with the squad as it is, if we want to reach the group stages then we absolutely can’t send teams out without the likes of Kane and Son playing in the knockout games whoever the opposition is...who else is going to score a goal? Europa can be a chance for clubs like Arsenal who seem to have a good number of first team ready youngsters but we don’t seem to have those resources so it will be a drain on our squad and if we don’t sign competent players in this window, which is unlikely, Europa will have a negative impact on us.
 
I don't know how we missed the opportunity to leverage the Walker transfer to our advantage by making Foden part of the deal.

Because they made it crystal clear that he only had one future and that was at City; I know his agent and ALL inquiries made about him were laughed off, even Bayern Munich who were prepared to pay a ridiculous sum at the time.
 
The real sadness of this entire saga is looking at this great team - Lloris, Walker, Toby, Jan, Rose; Wanyama, Dembele; Son, Dele, Eriksen; Kane

5 or 6 have gone and we only got decent money for Walker.

We couldn't even be a great selling club !!!

Anyway, let's look forward not backwards :-)

IN all of this, all seemed to have forgot that it was Poch that boasted that he 'schooled' levy into not spending in two windows. That's when I knew Poch was finished.