Mails: Pochettino could be the new Ferguson

Daniel Storey

Keep those accusations of bias coming to theeditor@football365.com…

 

Manchester United need to do all they can to get Pochettino
Pochettino is an elite level football manager. He talked up the size of Spurs as a club recently showing he’s not afraid of setting a high bar for himself and going for it. Clearly, he has a lot of belief in himself. That attitude was evident in his selection in the most intense atmosphere and biggest game maybe all of them have played bar Llorente and Sissoko. That attitude is evident in his players.

That Madrid side, bar the right back, were the best team in the world last season by a distance. They’ve not been their most fluent lately, but it still takes massive bollocks to go the home of the European champions, the biggest club in the world, with Kroos, Modric, Casemiro, Ronaldo and Isco as a team of non flashy homegrown up and comers along with a couple of journeymen with the clear belief that they could do it. Contrast that with United’s £135 million pound forward line going away to a team of 6 and 7/10s who can’t buy a goal nor keep one out and not register one single shot in the second half.

It’s starting to look like he’s going to finish in the top 4 with this team for the third season in a row as well. A lot of people, myself included, thought that their great run over the last two seasons might fizzle out but they’re showing consistency and solidity again this season, reaffirmed by tonight’s performance.

They’re showing more of that than any other team in the league as well bar the the two Manchester clubs. It’s really hard to see Liverpool or Arsenal finish ahead of them this season. Petulance and ego might see Chelsea finish behind them as well. They’ve done this at a fraction of the budget of the other clubs. Their record signing was £40 million and he’s a centre back who came this season. Yannick Bolasie is on bigger wages than most of them.

It’s not luck over three seasons. Pochettino has built this. He is evidently able to adapt to his surroundings and accept them while looking to improve them, unlike other managers with huge resources who complain they need more. His willingness to accept what he has and believe that his players are relatively intelligent human beings who can learn things has bred good relationships between him and the team as a unit and I’m sure has helped them get on with themselves too.

It’s much easier to work when you like everyone in the office. He’s produced a young, hungry team full of confidence and desire and, as that fight with Chelsea showed, a hatred of losing and need to dominate. They look like what United used to be.

Mourinho is a basically a freelance business consultant. He’s all about humility (literally won’t shut the f*ck up talking about the need to be humble) and risk management. He has a very set idea of how a business should be run and has no interest in trying out other ideas because he just doesn’t care that much, because he doesn’t need to. He’s Jose Mourinho. He’s been non stop trying to lower fans’ expectations as well, just like LVG. His passion is gone. It’s a 9 to 5 for him now. That’s fine for a while, if it’s effective, but football is supposed to make a fan feel things. It’s hard to do that sometimes when you feel like you’re watching the football equivalent of a powerpoint presentation.

I’m not calling for Mourinho’s head, yet, and I’ll be happy to see him at United for a third season assuming a top 2 finish in this one and Pochettino is staying where he is. If there’s even a whiff of him thinking about leaving Spurs though (and he must know his best players will always leave for 3 times the wages) Woodward needs to do everything he can to get him to United.

He really looks like the next Ferguson to me. Plus there’d be a poetic justice in Mourinho getting dumped for a new guy at the end of his second season.
Eamonn, Dublin

 

BUT WHAT HAS HE WON?!
Wow, you’ve really anointed the new chosen one, eh? Pochettino showing Mourinho how it’s done.

Can’t help but point out the flaw though. More PL points than Mourinho since the latter took over at MUFC? Yes. Much better net transfer spend? Yes. Managing players to performances and results? Yes. Such a great manager must have won a few trophies by now? Emphatically no.

This is Mourinho’ s 2nd season at United, and there are already 2 trophies on the sideboard. Not to mention the loads of trophies he’s won elsewhere. Pochettino may well prove his worth as a very good manager, but in trophy terms he’s not fit to lace Mourinho’s boots.

If Pochettino is up there and challenging at the business end of the season (for the trophies he can be bothered to go for), well and good. But United will be there or thereabouts too, with a manager who knows how to get over the line when push comes to shove.

I know who I’m backing.
Kevin, Dublin
(Jose Mourinho has managed Porto (the best team in Portugal, although clearly the CL was an astounding achievement), Inter, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United. Mauricio Pochettino has managed Espanyol, Southampton and Tottenham. Both are fine managers, so do we really need to explain how their expectations are slightly different?)

 

An email with the subject line ‘F365 Tottenham bias’
So, an away draw at Real Madrid – without actually put the ball in the net – is a good result but an draw away at Anfield – without actually put the ball in the net, is bad..

What you trying to say F365?
Tom, NY
(MC – That Real Madrid are better than Liverpool and that Manchester United should be a lot better than Tottenham, given the money spent on transfers and wages for players and manager. Happy to help.)

 

Spurs conclusions from a happy fan in Madrid
Long time reader and first time poster – having some beers outside of the Bernabéu and thought would share some thoughts on the game

My god, never have I never seen us play a team who look like scoring against us every time they have the ball. Their one touch play is next level and Modric and Ronaldo really are a different class to anything I’ve seen in the premier league.

Speaking of Modric, Winks was absolutely brilliant and the only player I can compare him to is Modric, obviously nowhere near that class but that sort of player who is so comfortable on the ball and urging the play forward. England fans who dismiss his inclusions can’t have watched him play.

Loving the relationship between aurier and sissoko but aurier is 80% incredible 20% shambles and the best players don’t have that 20%. Llorente absolutely phenomenal, a lot of us doubted his inclusion but he was integral in our game plan in controlling the long balls.

Either way nice watching a game with 0 expectations, more relaxing than frustrating home games I expect to win. Danny Rose surprisingly got a fantastic reception from the travelling fans.

English teams finally having a great season in the CL and finally believing we might go through?
Dominic, London (Do Spurs finally have depth?)

 

Harry Winks is the real deal.

Davinson Sanchez is the real deal.

I’ve bashed Lloris before but he was unbelievable.

We could have won against the best team in the world with no midfield (Dembele/ Wanyama), no left back, and no bright young thing in Dele and even Sissoko looked good

COME ON YOOOOOOOO SPURS!
Dave, Winchester Spurs

 

Winksy
Probably safe to say he’s good enough for Spurs.
Alex G, THFC

 

He really is
So, is Harry Winks going to be moving up the next World Cup ladder after that performance?
Dave Hone, London

 

There’s only two decent Harrys
For once this season the best Harry on the field was Winks and not that other bloke.
Russell (Harry is human), Cape Town

 

A Chelsea fan loving Spurs’ work
2017 has been a really strange year and personally I can’t wait for it to end. Last night I found myself wanting Spurs to get a result in Madrid. I wanted Winks to impress, saluted Lloris when he saved from Benzema and nearly put my head in my hands when Navas saved from Kane at the end. I’m a lifetime Chelsea fan – what is going on?

I think the answer is that I really like Pochettino and his modus operandi – faith in kids, tactically adept and a seemingly decent guy.

There I’ve said it and I feel dirty but well played Spurs. Now, can we have Pochettino when Conte quits at the end of next season Mr Levy? And can we have Mr Levy in charge of Brexit negotiations as well please.
Chris Nixon (Spurs, oops sorry CFC) Surrey

 

And another!
Strictly speaking, and according to the rules. As a Chelsea fan I have to dislike Spurs (and I do) but I found it hard not to cheer them last night (just a little)

Bearing in mind they started without : Ali, Wanyama, Dembele, Rose/Davies, I thought they did superbly well. On occasions they rode their luck, but it reminded me a lot of 2012, and Chelsea’s run to the Final. A group of players all fighting for each other. A ‘Team’ performance at its finest.

Overall they deserved that result and I have feeling they’ll do something special in this comp.

Plus, there’s the added benefit that squad players such as Winks, Llorente & Sissoko played in a (very) meaningful game and performed. That bodes well for them all & more importantly Spurs.
Neil, over there, somewhere

 

Mourinho > Pochettino
“On Tuesday night he took a team lacking Dele Alli, Victor Wanyama and two international left-backs to the Bernabeu as equals to Real Madrid and emulated Bobby Robson, Rafa Benitez, Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson in returning unbeaten. He earns little more than £5m a year.

Pray tell us which manager deserves a pay rise commensurate with his achievements with his club.”

Easy one, this: it’s the guy who has won two trophies and a Community Shield in one season. If the highlight of your season, or indeed your career to-date with a club, is an away draw with the European champions then you’re setting the bar way, way low. Also, I’m pretty sure that Moussa Sissoko was signed for £30m off the back of an impressive World Cup – Pochettino has had arse all to do with his long-term development. And I would love to hear, other than Harry Winks, which most promising young players is keeping so close? Walker-Peters (98 minutes total), or Davinson Sanchez (signed for a fee rising to £42m)?

Look, this isn’t a dig at Spurs or Pochettino, but let’s not pretend that he’s the second bloody coming just yet. It’s just as likely at this stage that they will finish trophyless again as it is that they’ll go and win anything. Last night was not a masterclass, but a good performance against a better team. You might not like the man or his methods, but results are what matters most, and Mourinho gets them when it matters; so far, Spurs have not done that, and a creditable 1-1 away draw against Real Madrid changes little.
Ted, Manchester

 

But really, look at what he’s done
Poch made his name at Espanyol and Soton before moving to spurs. Those who expect Poch to have challenged for titles with Espanyol against Barca and Real Madrid or EPL with Soton against Utd, City, Arsenal, Chelsea need to have a word with themselves.

Mourinho – FC Porto and Chelsea.
Guardiola – Barca and Bayern Munich

Whether Poch is comparable to these two does not really matter. Poch is an incredible manager trophies or not and Spurs are lucky to have him. Guardiola or Mourinho would definitely not play Madrid at Bernebeu and pit players like Eric Dier and Harry Winks against the likes of Kroos, Modric, Casemiro.

Spurs current standing is an over achievement with resources they have compared to Utd & city, and their wage cap. And it looks they’ll keep getting better.

The fact that Poch is yet to win a trophy doesn’t bother Spurs fans at all. That’s for naysayers to worry about.
FF

 

Milner is better than Henderson
After one win against a very mediocre Maribor but surely we can all agree that Milner is more effective in just about every sense than that yapping ankle biter Henderson?

Thought so.
Rebecca, LFC

 

Shakespeare!
Now is the winter of our discontent,
At fair King Power, where we lay our scene
With anger fir’d, and patience clearly spent,
The ending of Craig Shakespeare’s top-flight dream.
Nine months ago, the ‘day when football died’,
As heralded, he saved them from the drop
But now, with relegation prophesied,
‘Tis him, not Birnam Wood, that’s got the chop.
Results be now the measure of a man,
And Brighton beat alone is no suggestion
Of progress, so, in search for one who can,
Big Sam, or not Big Sam? – That is the question.
For naught will fill the press with such abhorrence
Than for the job to go to bloody foreigns.
James, CFC, Croydon

 

O conspiracy!
Sham’st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,
When evils are most free?
A Reasonable LFC Fan (Wondering if patience is still a virtue)

 

Luton Town are the big news
So after after beating a play-off contender 4-1 at the weekend, we just beat the second in the league (away from home) 4-1!!!!

Keep your champions leagues, your draws at the Bernabeu and seven goals against Maribor I’m loving this Luton side run riot!
Liam, LTFC (the town are going up, and now you’re gonna believe us!)