Mauricio Pochettino, the project manager without the right project
Mauricio Pochettino’s most famous lunch happened six years ago. When he met Sir Alex Ferguson in Mayfair, it was a sign he was being anointed as the heir apparent. Manchester United’s greatest manager seemed to be giving his seal of approval to a probable successor.
Except that United have appointed three managers since then and if Jose Mourinho was lined up to replace Louis van Gaal in 2016, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag scarcely figured in the conversation when some of Ferguson’s proteges first felt Pochettino’s attacking, high-tempo football, faith in youth and capacity to improve players may him the ideal fit for Old Trafford. If it was remarkable how virtually everyone, from United’s powerbrokers to their fans, coalesced behind Ten Hag, it indicated Pochettino’s decline in status.
Perhaps his departure from Paris Saint-Germain does not. From Carlo Ancelotti to Unai Emery to Thomas Tuchel, there is a record of their managers prospering elsewhere. If that sounds auspicious for Pochettino, there is the question if he went from being tomorrow’s manager to yesterday’s while answering the criticism that he never won any trophies.
Certainly the last three years have dented his reputation more than burnished it. Pochettino’s two great feats brought second-place finishes. The transformation of Tottenham Hotspur may have been reflected best by their 2016-17 campaign, an 86-point effort when they scored the most goals, conceded the fewest and Dele Alli’s potential felt endless. Runners-up in the Premier League then, they were finalists in the Champions League in 2019 and if domestic results suggested a team in decline even as they plotted an improbable path past Manchester City and Ajax, they may have been a few Alisson saves away from conquering the continent.
Since then? Tottenham have lost 7-2 to Bayern Munich and sacked Pochettino when 14th. He spent a year out of work, lost a Ligue Un title to Lille, won one but conjured a bad-tempered Champions League exit to City and a meltdown against Real Madrid. Pochettino forged an emotional connection to Tottenham, but not the club he captained, PSG. His doctrine of universal energy felt impossible to enforce when Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar stood on the half-way line, waiting for their team-mates to do the running and get the ball back. Pochettino was the manager that spurred his players on to new heights; instead footballers as different as Gini Wijnaldum and Messi underperformed under him.
All of which could seem a PSG problem. Except that many of the jobs Pochettino could now want require a capacity to massage the egos of stars, to build teams around marquee players and to negotiate Champions League knockout ties. A comparison of PSG’s last two managers suggests Tuchel did far better at each; indeed Karim Benzema’s 18-minute hat-trick and the collapse against Real revived concerns about Pochettino’s big-game record. He had long seemed on Real’s radar, and perhaps Ancelotti will head off into retirement in a year, but the Italian has illustrated why they don’t want the philosopher-manager. They prioritise results, especially in such defining games.
Pochettino seemed to have multiple exit strategies from Paris, in Manchester and London. There was something appealing about the prospect of a job swap with Antonio Conte, who appeared to offer as much longevity in London as Pochettino did in Paris. Indeed, the Argentinian’s most recent contract at Tottenham was due to expire in 2023. So, admittedly, were the deals Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Conte signed. But with Spurs bringing in Conte’s targets and PSG seemingly keener on Zinedine Zidane, a reunion looks increasingly unlikely.
Meanwhile, Pochettino’s relatively slow start in France (despite winning nine of his first 11 games in all competitions, he did not win Ligue Un at the first time of asking) scarcely gives him the reputation of a troubleshooter or a manager who will have an immediate impact; he did not at Tottenham, after all.
Rather he seems the project manager who has been in search of a project since Spurs delayed for too long in breaking up his first team and a belated attempt at renewal instead brought regression. But there are relatively few projects at elite level and two of them – Arsenal and Barcelona – are ruled out by Pochettino’s past. Another, Liverpool, have Jurgen Klopp tied up for four years. There is the prospect of Guardiola leaving City next summer; it would be intriguing to see if Pochettino’s star has waned to the point where he is nearer the bottom of their shortlist than the top.
There was the sense the job Pochettino did at Tottenham elevated him to that level, especially in a time when silverware mattered less and progressive values more. Yet the mismatch of the Argentinian and PSG suggest his methods suit the kind of club Tottenham were in 2015, with the up-and-coming, the energetic, the malleable and the willing to learn: he could work better with the ambitious and the upwardly mobile, not those who think they have already made it. Paris Saint-Germain may be the most extreme example of a glamour club, but they run contrary to Pochettino’s principles. And if he is scarred by his time there, the wounds may not heal if they may him look less appealing to other such clubs.
