Mauricio Pochettino explains differences between PSG and Spurs

In a recent interview, former Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has explained the differences between working at Paris Saint Germain, and working at Spurs (as well as Espanyol and Southampton).

He was asked by La Nacion (via sport witness) if he has more control with the United States national team, and explained how his spell in France was different to his time in England with Spurs and Southampton.

Mauricio Pochettino explains why PSG are different to Spurs

The 52-year old said: " Well… I don’t know, human beings always long for what they don’t have or what they don’t know, and we always think that the other is better. You have to try it, that’s why you have to get out of your comfort zone.

I believe that we must analyse the moments of the players, not their names, but their circumstances and contexts. PSG was an incredible experience… difficult, hard, where you really discover who you are, you really temper your sporting character.

Behind an experience like this everything becomes a little more relative, you start to understand things that, perhaps, you didn’t understand before when you were at Southampton, at Espanyol or at Tottenham.

Clubs like PSG make things [that] have a different meaning [to Espanyol, Southampton, and Spurs], and that gives you the experience and knowledge to then decide what you like [the way Espanyol, Southampton, and Spurs work, or the way PSG work].

You can certainly see where he is coming from. Despite having a star sudded PSG side, plenty of people pointed out that it was impossible to work with such egos in the side, as well as players who would not track back, or press when PSG did not have the ball. We all saw how key out of possession work was for Poch during his time in N17.

This week marked five years to the day that the club sacked Poch after five years in charge, replacing him with Jose Mourinho. Then replacing him with Nuno Espirito Santo. Then replacing him with Antonio Conte. Then replacing him with Ange Postecoglu.

So, in nearly the same time that Poch was manager of Spurs, the club have had four permanent managers, as well as two interim stints from Ryan Mason, and an interim stint from Christian Stellini, where the club still managed to sneak in another sacking, despite him only being in interim charge.

Some have made the argument that Poch had better players at his disposal than his successors, but it’s hard to argue that he was the main reason they were so good. Of course these players had talent themselves, but when you look at the likes of Harry Kane, Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Dele Alli and others, when they first played for Poch vs when they last played for Poch, it really is night and day in comparison.