It has been 11 months since Mauricio Pochettino took over a Tottenham Hotspur side that had suffered a sub-par 2013-14 season.
After the failings of Andre Villas-Boas and to an extent, Tim Sherwood, the Argentine (Daniel Levy’s eighth appointment at Spurs) was brought in to not only improve the performances on the pitch, but to also create a positive atmosphere off it.
Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood were sacked more for their off the pitch failings as much as their on-pitch ones. Villas-Boas reportedly fell out with Emmanuel Adebayor and other senior members of the team, while Sherwood did not fare much better, although he contributed to his own downfall by publicly slagging off his players in public.
Daniel Levy allowed the worst thing that could happen to a club to occur at the Spurs – player power took over. Managers, scouts, directors of football, coaches, tea ladies and all have been through the White Hart Lane revolving door and the only constant was the one which held the most power: the players.
For this reason, Levy had to get his next appointment right. He needed to find a manager who he could trust, a manager who not only had the coaching ability but also the off-the-pitch personality to wrestle back the shift of power from the players. Enter Mauricio Pochettino. He had just come off the back of an incredible season at Southampton, in which that club played arguably the best football in the country while integrating and improving young English talent. Levy’s eyes lit up. He found his man and he got him.
Pochettino’s on-field performance has been good. A cup final and a likely top six finish is good enough for a manager who had little input on squad personnel. His off-pitch performance has won Spurs fans over. He has integrated youth players from the academy. Names such as Harry Kane, Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb have won fans over not only because they are homegrown, but also because they show genuine passion for the club, something which is not present in the modern-day game.
Where Pochettino also did well is his handling of certain players. Adebayor and Younes Kaboul were named captains at the start of the season but they (as well as Etienne Capoue) have been frozen out due to attitude problems. Pochettino has stamped his authority by leaving out some of his most senior players, while also letting it be known to the rest of the squad that bad attitudes will not be tolerated.
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Mauricio is a product of Marcelo Bielsa. He lives and dies by a high-pressing system. Not every player can play such a system and this is why young, hungry, energetic players are forming the spine of Pochettino’s Tottenham, rather than senior players who are possibly playing for their last “big club”.
During a recent meeting between the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters trust and the Tottenham Hotspur board, Daniel Levy has announced that the club’s transfer policy has reverted to what it was under Damien Comoli. Young players who are in the £10-£15m price range will be targeted. These players will be scouted by Spurs’ new scouting system which comprises of Paul Mitchell (Head of Analysis) who was brought in from Pochettino’s former side Southampton, Adrian Esparraga (Head of European Scouting), Rob McKenzie (Head of Player Identification) and more. Pochettino recently commented on Mitchell, saying that the Head of Analysis “knows the kind of player he wants”. This indicates that Mauricio Pochettino has a larger say in transfers that most, if not all managers under Levy have ever had before.
While Pochettino is still a young manager, who is only at his third (and largest) club, he is already beginning to stamp his authority on the modus operandi at White Hart Lane. He is doing what Villas-Boas and Sherwood failed to do by showing his players that he is the boss at Hotspur Way and is changing the dynamic which can only lead to exciting things ahead.
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Great Article agree 100%