According to Football.London journalist Alasdair Gold, Mauricio Pochettino “did not help matters” with his actions during his time in charge at Tottenham.
What did he say?
The north London side parted ways with the Argentine towards the end of last year, with Jose Mourinho coming in to take over on a permanent basis.
And now, Gold has revealed that a combination of factors led to Spurs’ decision on Pochettino, including the former Lilywhites manager himself.
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He said: “A lack of investment in the squad which meant a staleness and tiredness after the busy festive period among Pochettino’s team, some disgruntled players who wanted out, uncertainty over whether they would play their home matches and a manager who was beginning to realise that he could not do any more with what he had at his disposal.
“That lack of unity and fight for each other was ebbing away and it only got worse the next season with players who needed to move on remaining at the club and those whose future remained unclear. Pochettino did not help matters with his comments on his own future and perhaps not fighting harder publicly to get what he wanted for his squad.”
Perfect storm
The highs of reaching the Champions League final last season certainly masked some of the issues that were beginning to develop at Spurs, not least the fact that they actually lost 13 times in the Premier League as they clinched a top-four place by the skin of their teeth.
The summer saw the likes of Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso, amongst others, arrive but there was still the glaring hole of not having a back-up option to Harry Kane, particularly with Fernando Llorente leaving.
So a poor start to the new season only continued the snowball effect in north London, until Daniel Levy decided that enough was enough and a new direction was needed. With this still being the early months of Mourinho’s time in charge, the jury is still out on whether Spurs made the right decision to get rid of Pochettino.
Meanwhile, Spurs fans buzzing with Harry Kane’s announcement.