‘Victim of your own success’ – Pochettino opens up on his exit from Tottenham

Mauricio Pochettino has claimed that he and his coaching staff were victims of their own success at Tottenham and that they surpassed the club’s expectations.

It was under Pochettino that Tottenham evolved from top four hopefuls to Champions League regulars. Although the club failed to any silverware under the Argentine, he took them close to winning both the Premier League and the Champions League.

The 48-year-old was sacked by the North London club after a poor start to last season and was without work for over a year before taking over at Paris Saint-Germain at the start of this month.

Pochettino admitted that the expectation at PSG is nothing short of winning the Champions League.

The former Spurs boss told Marca: “Here, nothing else works other than winning.

“Winning the Champions League has been an illusion for 50 years, we have never won it, and when I was a player it was an obsession.

“That is the objective, we cannot think of playing a good role in the Champions League, but here we talk about winning it.

“For that, you have to build and have a structure that supports and improves sports. Since we lost the final to Tottenham, our dream is to have the chance to play a final again.”

Pochettino also denied that he directly rejected advances from Real Madrid and Barcelona when he was the Tottenham manager.

When asked if the two Spanish giants wanted him, he responded: “Not so, although at the time there was a lot of talk.

“We greatly respect the teams that have been interested in our staff.

“It was not like that and of course I have had contact with clubs, but from whom we received the offer and the affection, it was PSG. And this is the ideal project.”

He also admitted that football is becoming increasingly about achieving instant success and that there was no room for long-term projects anymore.

When asked if the role of a manager is becoming increasingly difficult, Pochettino said: “Football is now and today, the results have to be immediate.

“It is difficult to find projects in the medium long term. This is to win the Champions.

“It is very difficult to sustain because we only look at today and we are immersed in a whirlpool.

“Here we have a year and a half of contract. At Tottenham, it was five, but that does not mean that you will be more or less long. Sometimes you can even be a victim of your own success, as we were at Tottenham when we exceeded expectations.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I am happy that Pochettino took over at PSG as it would have been difficult to see him manage another English club. However, I cannot help but think that it will not end too well for him in Paris as nothing apart from winning the Champions League will be considered a success there. Even the likes of Guardiola have found out that winning the Champions League is difficult as all it takes for you to be eliminated is one bad game.

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