The Inter Milan game was a strange occasion for many reasons on Tuesday, not least the fact that Tottenham somehow went from a comfortable win to a gut-wrenching loss in the space of seven minutes.
However, what was perhaps even more peculiar was Pochettino’s analogy in the build up to the Champions League clash at the San Siro.
The Tottenham boss attempted to explain how his side needed to be clever, but got completely lost in a strange analogy featuring cows and trains.
By the end of his explanation, no one was any the wiser as to the point he was trying to make, but it made for some funny reading.
Poch’s exact words were: “It’s like a cow who sees every single day for 10 years the train crossing in front, and if you ask the cow when the train is coming, he’s not going to have the right answer.”
What?!
A few days on, after the dust has settled on the gutting Tottenham defeat in Italy, one brave journalist asked the Tottenham boss about his strange comments.
After the match in Milan, Poch had bitten the heads of journalists, calling them disrespectful as they asked why the likes of Davinson Sanchez and Serge Aurier played ahead of Trippier and Alderweireld.
MORE SPURS STORIES
However, the Tottenham boss was in his usual friendly mood today, answering: “I tried to explain. I was explaining before to our chief scout and because he was saying ‘it was difficult for me to understand’.
“So I’ll explain again. I think (laughs) the most important thing is to be clever, improve and learn from the experience. That is the analogy. I tried to find another analogy. I didn’t want to use that one but I remember it was a question. I tried to explain that you can only win with experience.
“You need to keep your level, keep demanding. When you achieve and you want to achieve things again, important things, it’s not because last season you were good that you’re going to be good again. You need to build again your present.
“And the only way to build is working hard. If you write a history today, is it going to help if you put the same effort tomorrow and read another article. It’s not easy in football. You play well but need to prepare yourself to play the next day, the next game, the season. It’s important to be ready again.
“You will not play well tomorrow because you played well yesterday. I only wanted to explain that. It’s so important to be clever. People say when people praise you, it makes you weak. I say yes if you’re not clever. If you’re clever, you become strong. Everyone likes to be praised. If you take it in a good way, it makes you stronger.
“If you are not clever, it makes you weak. You think, ‘people think very well about me, I don’t need to do too much because the perception of the people is very good, I am a great manager’. Eh, come on! You need to show every day you are great.
“Yesterday if you win, it doesn’t mean you can show nothing tomorrow. That is when the ambitious, the mentality, the focus. if you want to win, the winning team, the winning players, have that mentality, if not, it’s impossible to win and have success.”
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
