The Three Essentials Mauricio Pochettino Needs To Receive At Tottenham
By Logan Holmes
If Mauricio Pochettino is to succeed at Tottenham, as everyone connected with Spurs hopes, then those same people will need to demonstrate three essentials – support, time and patience.
Mauricio Pochettino has become the 10th manager at Tottenham during Daniel Levy’ thirteen years as Chairman. From George Graham to Pochettino, all have been permanent appointments apart from David Pleat who had almost a complete season as caretaker while Spurs sought a replacement for Glenn Hoddle. In a similar way most found their tenure at White Hart Lane to be brief with only Harry Redknapp, Martin Jol and Hoddle (just) being in charge for more than 100 matches.
Pochettino is 42 years of age and was born in Murphy, Santa Fe, Argentina. A central defender who played in his homeland before spending 6 years with Espanyol in Spain, a club he later managed. He also played in France for Paris Saint-Germain and Bordeaux. He impressed in his 16 months in charge at Southampton but if he is to see out his 5-year contract at White Hart Lane and succeed where others have failed, there are three essentials he’ll require from Daniel Levy, the players and the fans.
The 3 Essentials
Support
When a new manager is appointed, the talk is always so positive with great plans and ambitions for the future. Speaking after the announcement of Pochettino’s appointment, Daniel Levy said,
"In Mauricio I believe we have a Head Coach who, with his high energy, attacking football, will embrace the style of play we associate with our Club. He has a proven ability to develop each player as an individual, whilst building great team spirit and a winning mentality."
If those dreams are to be fulfilled Pochettino will need the backing of Levy both financially in the transfer market to secure the players that he prefers but also to ensure that he retains the best players in the Tottenham team and not be swayed by the £ signs on the club’s balance sheets.
The players will have to give the manager their full backing, something that wasn’t evident from many of the players in the past season under either Andre Villas-Boas or Tim Sherwood. When the going got tough too many players took the easy option and lacked both fight and a desire to succeed.
Time
With most of the previous managers being shown the door early by Daniel Levy, Pochettino must be given the time to build a team to play in the style that he sees as the way forward. As with all managers, there will be ups and downs but for once Tottenham need to stick with the man they have chosen and back him through the difficult times without him coming under additional pressure through comments in the media about expectations to be met. Everyone is well aware of Tottenham’s aim – it’s been the same for the past number of seasons – a regular top-4 and Champions League finish.
Patience
Everyone at the club must show patience and give Pochettino the time he needs to get his ideas across to the players. During and after Andre Villas-Boas second home game in charge, there was booing from the stands, with fans displaying no patience.
Fans need to be more patient and not be so quick to jump onto social media and vent their anger against the players and the manager.
Pochettino spoke very enthusiastically about taking over at Spurs, saying,
"This is a Club with tremendous history and prestige and I am honoured to have been given this opportunity to be its Head Coach. There is an abundance of top-class talent at the Club and I am looking forward to starting work with the squad."
Best wishes to the new Head Coach, like all Tottenham fans we hope that he has a long and successful career at White Hart Lane.