Grading Mauricio Pochettino on Tottenham’s 2015/16 Season

The appointment of a relatively little-known Mauricio Pochettino as Tottenham’s new head coach in 2013 was greeted with apprehension by the majority of the club’s supporters. 

The more strongly felt emotion at that time was disappointment at missing out on Louis van Gaal who had instead opted to take charge at Manchester United. 

Other candidates like Roberto Martinez and Ajax boss Frank de Boer also seemed preferential to the Argentinian who had, to be fair to him, won plaudits for securing Southampton’s place in the Premier League. 

Of Van Gaal, De Boer, Martinez and Pochettino, only the Argentinian remains in his job two years later. 

When Pochettino replaced the hugely popular Nigel Adkins on England’s south coast, he was viewed with suspicion. 

Lifting Saints’ aspirations from survival to the European places won him the attention of Daniel Levy, and he was handed a five-year contract to move to north London. 

That the notoriously trigger-happy Levy was willing to commit to Pochettino’s vision over the long term suggested he had finally found a manager he truly believed in. 

Pochettino’s predecessors like Harry Redknapp, Andre Villas-Boas and Martin Jol were all kept on relatively short leashes. 

The club have been rewarded with genuine, observable progress that has, ahead of schedule, delivered Champions League qualification and the highest finish in decades. 

He has recently been rewarded with an enhanced contract through 2021, reportedly worth over £27 million. 

If he remains at the club until the end of this new contract, Pochettino will become Spurs’ fourth-longest serving manager—second only to Bill Nicholson in the post-war era. 

It can be difficult to quantify a manager’s influence on their team’s successes or failures. Fortune can play a hugely influential role.

Despite that, Pochettino’s team have evidently evolved under his guidance and come to embody many of his personal qualities. 

They are now a reflection of their shrewd, energetic, aggressive and occasionally cynical manager. 

In …

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