As fans, we often kid ourselves into believing that players and managers think about our club in the same way we do. In the majority of cases the distinction is clear – this is a job, and their affinity for the employer is at best passing. I think it would be unfair to call the majority of playing staff mercenary, but you get the point.
But then there is the exception: the local hero, devoted servant or one-club figure who genuinely makes you believe they share the same feeling towards the place. Spurs have been fortunate to have many of these figures – Ledley King and Michael Dawson are modern examples of this devoted passion for the club.
But it was always a little bit different with Poch. Maybe it was because he was the man to make the club genuinely believe again, to bring about meaningful change where other legends of the club had failed. Spurs have a litany of cult footballing icons in the modern era, mainly because they were so brilliant despite the failings of the team and club around them. Mauricio Pochettino was different because he galvanised the collective, made Spurs relevant both domestically and globally again, and brought back a swagger that had been missing from N17 for generations.
You can probably gather from the tone of this piece that the writer looked, and still looks, back very fondly on the Argentinian’s time in North London. But that is why the fallout and his subsequent managerial jobs have been so inherently disappointing for someone who believed Pochettino cared about the club beyond his contract of employment.
Clearly, fan naivety doesn’t go so far as expecting the man to devote his whole career to the club without compensation – although many of us as fans probably would. But there can exist a balance: a respect for a place and a fanbase that revered him in a way that may not be repeated for some time.
For balance, it is worth remembering that Daniel Levy and Spurs fired Mauricio Pochettino, and I don’t think even the most ardent Spurs fan would begrudge him seeking alternative employment. PSG and the USMNT were both jobs in which most fans would wish Pochettino every success. Indeed, there are many roles available across the globe to a manager of his calibre, with strong financial incentives.
As a Newell’s alum, maybe avoid Rosario Central; as an Espanyol favourite, maybe ignore the calls from Barcelona. Yet for all his affinity for Spurs, Pochettino was all too comfortable embarking on an ill-fated spell in west London with bitter rivals Chelsea. This was the moment most fans realised that the feelings they had towards the popular Argentinian were largely one-sided – or at least that whatever warmth he showed did not come from the same place, or postcode, as that of those who revered him so much in North London.
Yet his failure and exile to North America still left a small amount of hope. Had Poch realised that Chelsea was a mistake? Would there be some big admission of guilt and a repudiation of misguided decision-making? Was the USMNT role some kind of rehabilitation assignment, after which his true love would be confessed and a future return to North London reconfirmed?
Clearly, Poch’s reported imminent move to Manchester United falls short of the sinful act of working for bitter rivals Chelsea – but it does confirm that he doesn’t hold the club in the regard many thought he did. Once can be viewed as a mistake, but Manchester United will be his fourth Premier League role, and it leaves Spurs feeling like just another stop on his managerial journey – when, for so many nostalgic Spurs fans, it felt like the peak of supporting Spurs this century.
Call it naivety, but many Spurs fans realised Poch wasn’t truly one of us when he accepted a role with Chelsea. For any stragglers, his imminent arrival at Manchester United firmly ends any notion that he was ever truly ‘one of us’.
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