HOW apt that a car crash in the old Roman capital of Britain has us all wondering if Mauricio Pochettino is near the end of the road at Spurs. Tuesday’s Carabao Cup shootout defeat in Colchester continued Tottenham’s awful form. And Poch now finds himself under pressure just a few months after guiding the club […]
HOW apt that a car crash in the old Roman capital of Britain has us all wondering if Mauricio Pochettino is near the end of the road at Spurs.
Tuesday’s Carabao Cup shootout defeat in Colchester continued Tottenham’s awful form.
And Poch now finds himself under pressure just a few months after guiding the club to their first ever Champions League final — which they lost 2-0 to Liverpool.
Any Goliath can lose to a David in English cup football. Yet the fight Spurs showed in the former Roman stronghold was more Gus Caesar than Julius.
Tottenham, despite making ten changes, should have conquered.
Pochettino and his players had not even boarded their chariot back to Londinium when #Pochout was trending on Twitter.
But the rot set in at Spurs even before their run to Madrid.
Poch blamed the current situation on having an unsettled squad — and he is right.
But he is as much to blame as chairman Daniel Levy.
It is no secret the manager wanted the likes of Christian Eriksen, Danny Rose and Victor Wanyama out of the door this summer so he could overhaul his roster.
But they remain and that is because Levy has ballsed up contract talks or refused to take a hit on player sales.
There is no way Eriksen, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld should be in the final years of their contracts.
They should have been tied down or sold. But Levy’s pigheadness is costing his club.
Refusing to sell Eriksen in the summer for less than £130million — even though the Dane joined from Ajax for just £11.5m six years ago — is a perfect example of why Spurs are in this mess.
With a new stadium, training ground and supposed top young squad and manager, it is baffling why any star would want to leave.
But at Spurs they seem to be queuing up for the exit.
Only last week skipper and keeper Hugo Lloris — after all the support he got from Spurs in the wake of his drink-drive conviction — announced in the French press he would like to finish his career in the MLS.
And he insisted he loved Pochettino. So what is the problem? Is it the pay?
Could be. Tottenham have upped their scale but their best players know they could still earn more elsewhere.
Or is it a lack of silverware? Tottenham have not been champions of England since 1961 and not lifted a trophy since the League Cup in 2008.
Do the current stars believe losing in the Champions League final is as good as it is going to get?
Spurs fans — who have been through far tougher times — should be in dreamland but there is a lot of negativity and Poch has to hold his hands up.
How many other managers preview a Champions League semi-final by announcing they could quit if they win?
Pochettino seems to have been plotting his exit ever since booking a last-four place against Ajax last season.
He then seems to have spent the whole time since moaning about Levy’s failure to back him in the transfer windows.
There is no doubt two transfer windows without a single signing has come back to bite Spurs on the bum.
They tried to make amends in the summer with new additions but Tanguy Ndombele, Ryan Sessegnon and Giovani Lo Celso have suffered lapses in either form or fitness.
While there are suggestions Jack Clarke, signed from Leeds for £10m and loaned back, was Levy’s idea and not wanted by Pochettino.
It hints at cracks in the relationship between the manager and his chairman.
Poch admits there are colleagues at Spurs with different agendas but insists he will try to pull them together.
Maybe ‘United’ is the wrong term, as the way things stand you wouldn’t back against him taking over at Old Trafford.
Real Madrid could also be in the market for a new boss.
Poch has done a great job but is giving the impression it is the beginning of the end.
Ex-Spurs star Jamie O’Hara was spot-on when he said on talkSPORT yesterday: “The problem is the Carabao Cup is another trophy we could have won which we have now lost.
“It’s getting to the point where I’m looking at Poch’s interviews and he looks like, ‘I’m on the verge here, I’ve had enough’.”
