Mauricio Pochettino has opened up about his heartbreak watching Tottenham Hotspur's stunning fall from grace, as the club he once led to the Champions League final now fights to avoid Premier League relegation.
Just seven years after Pochettino guided Spurs to the pinnacle of European football, the north London side finds itself languishing in the bottom three with only four matches remaining this season. It's a dramatic decline that has left the Argentine manager feeling deeply emotional about his former club.
"It's really sad, I really love Tottenham," Pochettino revealed on The Overlap's Stick to Football podcast. "It's going to be a part of my life, an important part of my life as a coach, my personal life too. It's really sad because I know how the people are suffering there, inside the club and also the fans. It's difficult to accept."
Pochettino's five-year tenure at Tottenham was defined by remarkable achievements despite significant constraints. Under his leadership, Spurs finished second in the Premier League in 2016-17 and reached the Champions League final in 2019, all while the club invested heavily in a new state-of-the-art stadium and training ground. This meant playing "home" matches at Wembley and operating with limited transfer funds.
The Argentine revealed he had targeted stars like Sadio Mane and Georginio Wijnaldum during his time at the club—players who ultimately joined Liverpool and played key roles in defeating Spurs in that 2019 Champions League final. "We were winning every season because with all the circumstances that we were fighting, we spent 18 months with not one signing," Pochettino explained. "That was a record in the Premier League. We had money to spend but not the type of money to improve, to be close to win or to challenge. We challenged, we challenged to win. But we missed this last step."
Pochettino was dismissed by chairman Daniel Levy just five months after that Champions League final, replaced by Jose Mourinho. After a stint at Paris Saint-Germain, he returned to the Premier League as Chelsea head coach in May 2023, though his time at Stamford Bridge lasted only 12 months following a sixth-placed finish.
For fans who remember the electric atmosphere of Pochettino's Tottenham, watching the club's current struggles is a painful reminder of how quickly fortunes can change in football. As the season reaches its critical final weeks, Spurs supporters can only hope the spirit their former manager instilled can help them navigate this crisis.