Tottenham Hotspur may have had one of their most successful European seasons ever last year, but the journey eventually ended in defeat in Madrid.
Spurs had battled long and hard to escape from a group of death against Barcelona, Inter Milan, and PSV, before knocking out Borussia Dortmund, Man City, and Ajax en route to the final.
Unfortunately, Liverpool were waiting for Pochettino’s Spurs in the last match and bested them by two goals to nil thanks to an early penalty inside one minute and a late Origi strike to seal it.
While, in hindsight, Tottenham fans will look back on the journey with fond and proud memories, in the aftermath of the match itself, the loss hurt.
It appears that the defeat took quite the toll on usually calm and happy gaffer, Pochettino, too, as the Argentine has admitted that he didn’t want to leave the house for 10 days.
Poch said (Football London): “It was a very bad summer. It’s difficult. We had the most unbelievable time before the Champions League final.
“The three weeks to prepare were unbelievable but massively disappointed in the way you lose. Then you need to go home.
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“I took a train from Madrid to Barcelona the day after. I spent 10 days in my home and didn’t want to go out. Tough because you nearly touch the glory.
“All the effort we make, to get to the final was unbelievable but you want to win and when you don’t it’s massive because you know how tough it is to get there again next season, to start to find the energy to try to win – that is why it is difficult to recover but we spent 10 to 15 days and start to motivate yourself for next season.
I tried after a few days to go to play golf. Not to play, just to swing. That make me feel very well because I was focused with my son to try to touch the ball perfectly but it was impossible.
“Then I started to move on. The people that appreciated our job also helped. In Spain, English fans in restaurants in Madrid, also in Ibiza, people from Liverpool, people from Tottenham, different football people said ‘oh fantastic Tottenham’.
“That started to build happiness again because people recognised our job was fantastic.
“I talked to Jesus every day to try to find the reason. Always you try to analyse but in the end the analysis is different.
“It’s small details that make the difference. I thought we were better than Liverpool. It wasn’t a great final but small details make the difference.
“For me, I compare with summer 2002 when we were beaten by England and drew with Sweden in the group stage at World Cup, within one week.
“As a player and as a manager, both are the worst moments in my career.”
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