Mauricio Pochettino was sacked by Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday, and Spurs’ 14th-place standing in the Premier League suggests he deserved it. By all accounts, he lost the dressing room months ago. But despite the way his tenure ended, Pochettino is undoubtedly the most important manager in Tottenham’s modern history. He didn’t just achieve excellent results: Pochettino set up his successor Jose Mourinho, and anyone who follows him, to win trophies in the future.
If Jose Mourinho succeeds at Tottenham it’ll be thanks to what Mauricio Pochettino built
Pochettino was the most important manager in Tottenham history, even if he had to go.
Tottenham’s standing in English football has risen so steadily since the early 2000s that it’s easy to forget how close the club came to hitting a wall. After Gareth Bale was sold in 2013, the seven players bought with the proceeds all underperformed. Manager Andre Villas-Boas was fired and replaced by glorified gym teacher Tim Sherwood, who proceeded to perform a six-month comedy routine. A bad hire the following summer could have stopped Tottenham’s progress and ensured it failed to compete with England’s top clubs for the foreseeable future. Instead, Spurs nailed it.
The man Tottenham hired, Pochettino, was a better manager than any Spurs supporter could have reasonably hoped for. He led the club to four consecutive top-four finishes, consistently out-performed Arsenal and Manchester United, and made a Champions League final. He turned unheralded and struggling young players into Premier League stars.
When Pochettino arrived at Spurs, it was a club without a direction except to sign young players for reasonable prices and flip them for a profit. He established a high-pressure style of play and got his players to work harder than they ever had before. Spurs quickly became synonymous with relentless pressing.
Lots of things changed about Tottenham’s tactics and squad over the course of Pochettino’s tenure. He switched among 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 3-5-2, 3-4-3 and 4-4-2 diamond formations. He would change the directness of attacking buildup based on opponent and available personnel. Lucas Moura joined the team in 2018 and gave Pochettino the traditional winger he’d been lacking. But no matter what, Spurs always played aggressive defense ... until this season.
Pochettino’s success couldn’t last forever. His preferred style meant that he was never going to be Tottenham’s Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson. Ultra high pressing-focused systems require too much buy-in from the whole squad. They require not just intense physical preparation, but mental energy as well. Players have to be willing to train just as hard out of season as they do in season, and they need to have a desire to push past the point of exhaustion late in games.
When Tottenham’s players had something to chase — respect, recognition, trophies, big contracts — Pochettino got full commitment from his players. But stars Christian Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen and Danny Rose made it clear on several occasions over the last year that they were looking for a new challenge. Pochettino wanted to drastically reshape the squad this summer, but chairman Daniel Levy sold none of them.
We can only guess if Pochettino recognized that he didn’t have the support of his players necessary to run his system, or if he simply gave up. But it was clear from the first game of the season that Tottenham wasn’t Tottenham anymore. Even though Spurs beat Aston Villa in that match, then did well to draw against Manchester City a week later, the team’s trademark relentlessness was gone. The 1-0 loss to Newcastle was a wake up call for fans. Spurs haven’t played well for two games in a row since.
Perhaps Pochettino’s tenure could have been salvaged if Levy had done a better job this summer. I suspect Tottenham would have been better off long term if they had binned all of the players Pochettino wanted to, bought replacements for them at the expense of the following season’s transfer budget, and empowered Pochettino to run the team as he saw fit. But Levy couldn’t go back in time to make those decisions, and Pochettino seemed to have alienated a handful more players since the summer. Both Pochettino and the players have looked apathetic all season, and it was time for a change.
But thanks to their success under Pochetino, Tottenham have the financial muscle and clout within the game to turn things around. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has been a huge success, and should allow Spurs to compete with historically bigger clubs for the foreseeable future. And Jose Mourinho is getting paid a lot of money to come right the ship.
But managers like Mourinho, and players like this summer’s big signings — Tanguay Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso — don’t join a club just because the money is good. They have to feel like the club is well-positioned to challenge for trophies. Manchester United has unlimited money and the most storied history in English football, but they get turned down by most of their transfer targets because the current iteration of the club is a joke.
Pochettino’s management is what made Spurs a reputable club among world class managers and players. The reason Tottenham can successfully move on from Mauricio Pochettino is Mauricio Pochettino. Whatever Mourinho or any future manager goes on to achieve will have been made possible by the foundation Pochettino built.
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