Tottenham Boss Explains Lunch with Sir Alex Ferguson
A lunch meeting between Tottenham Hotspur coach, Mauricio Pochettino, and former Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, was nothing more than a dream come true for the Argentine.
Mauricio Pochettino has finally spoken about his lunch meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson a couple of days ago, prior to signing a new five-year contract extension to remain as Tottenham’s manager.
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Early speculation between the two men hovered around the idea that Ferguson was discussing a potential managerial role for Pochettino with the Red Devils.
And with the Spurs gaffer only verbally agreeing to a new deal at the time, it left a possible opening for the Argentine to jump ship and coach another team.
Thankfully, that wasn’t the case because Mauricio Pochettino had this to say about his meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson.
“Did he ask about Manchester United? No,” Pochettino said at his press conference ahead of Tottenham’s final fixture against Newcastle United (quotes via Sky Sports).
“If you know Sir Alex Ferguson, he is a person we can all learn from because he has a fantastic history about football and about life. For me, it was a dream come true.”
“When I was young, when I started my career as a manager, he was always my inspiration, my reference and when you can share two hours with a person who, for me, was the greatest manager in the world, the history of football, you can only enjoy.”
“It was difficult because I wanted to stop time but it was impossible. It was fantastic.”
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Had Pochettino said this before signing a contract extension, it wouldn’t have been surprising if no one believed the Argentinian’s words after having lunch and meeting with Ferguson.
But now that Pochettino was able to discuss this topic with reporters during his final press game conference, after the fact that he has now committed himself fully to Tottenham, it’s mostly a sigh of relief for Spurs supporters.
To know that they won’t be losing their coach to another club.
Switching subjects, Mauricio Pochettino was asked about finishing above Arsenal once again. His previous response was that it didn’t matter. This time around, he delved a bit deeper into why he wants his Tottenham team to finish in second place.
“The supporters and their feelings are very important but we are professional,” Pochettino continued. “To move on, we need to sometimes put out the emotions, to be clever, we need to fight first to improve ourselves and be strong in our ideas.”
“I can understand it, for our supporters it’s special to be above Arsenal, but I want to be second not because we’ll be above our enemy, our opponent, but because we are ambitious.”
“Maybe one day Arsenal finish eighth, we finish seventh, yes we’re above but it’s not a success for us.”
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The big picture for Mauricio Pochettino is to continue building on the foundation that he, his coaching staff and players have established in their two years together. And not to be better than Arsenal, because it’s so much more than just one club, even if they’re local rivals.
Tottenham wants to be a consistent top four club in the Premier League and a yearly competitor in Europe, this is Pochettino’s grand project that he wants to achieve. To create a legacy that Sir Alex Ferguson did with Manchester United.