‘He finished him off’ – Ex-Southampton player reveals all on Pochettino’s gruelling training regime

Tottenham Hotspur have undoubtedly improved under the guidance of Mauricio Pochettino over the past four or five years.

A big part of this has been down to the sheer fitness of the players once they bought into his tough training regime.

Poch cleared the uninterested deadwood and trained up his young and hungry Spurs, developing many squad players into first team stars, with Kieran Trippier being the prime example.

The Argentine manager is famous for his double training sessions, and Tottenham have reaped the rewards on the pitch, finishing in the top three for three successive seasons.

One ex-Southampton man has opened up on Poch’s training techniques, claiming that they nearly finished off poor old Rickie Lambert.

David Connolly left Southampton as Pochettino arrived, but he still stayed in touch with all his old team mates.

He heard many tales of the new gaffer’s intense new training sessions.

Connolly told LoveSport radio: “I left Southampton just when he came in and I know Rickie Lambert was saying that he finished him off because his training regime was so hard.

“They very rarely had a day off – there’s nothing wrong with that – but he worked them really hard in the gym beforehand, training was very intense and the manager was happy to be in all day long.

“He lived for his football and he still does. He’s in basically seven days a week, he works really long hours trying to get the best out of his players and it’s a heavy, heavy workload.

“You have seen in seasons past where they’ve fallen away at the end and that’s been levelled at Pochettino.

“I just wonder whether [Kane] did have enough break, mentally as well as physically.

“There’s different types of tiredness. You might be mentally tired, not necessarily physically, but your concentration levels.

“There’s a lot resting on his shoulders and there might be mental fatigue.”

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