MARTIN SAMUEL ON POCH
He must think twice about joining an unstable empire
ON THE face of it, Manchester United and Mauricio Pochettino are a heaven-made match. Then again, so were United and David Moyes; and United and Louis van Gaal; and most certainly United and Jose Mourinho.
All had excellent reasons for taking the job and track records that suggested they would thrive. Moyes was ‘the chosen one’, the recommendation of Alex Ferguson, a hard-working, ambitious Scot in the image of his predecessor.
Van Gaal was a coaching guru with a background of elite success and an ego that could handle the spotlight.
Mourinho was almost his younger alter ego, a modern coach with an avalanche of achievement across Europe and the transfer market nous to handle the spending of the club’s millions.
Manchester United chewed them up and spat all three out.
Indeed, if the six seasons since Ferguson’s departure have taught us anything, it is that United, once the most stable of empires, are now a manager eater. Three respected figures have been rendered close to untouchable by any elite club in the immediate aftermath of their dismissal by United.
Moyes has never returned to Champions League level and is currently unemployed, Van Gaal has not worked in club management since, while talk of Mourinho bouncing back immediately at Real Madrid seems wishful thinking — certainly if it is now felt Pochettino can be coaxed away from Tottenham this summer.
And while the man who would be king at Old Trafford hardly worked overtime distancing himself from the job when asked on Monday, Pochettino needs to think long and hard about his next career move.
Of course, managing United is seen as both promotion and grand opportunity. Even as they sit 13 points adrift of Tottenham, United are a bigger club. Historically, they have bought Tottenham’s best players and it is presumed that, if they pay, they can lure their manager this summer, too. But that doesn’t necessarily make them a better club — or a better career option for Pochettino.
If his ambition, long-term, is to manage Real Madrid, then joining United could be a dealbreaker in Spain unless he gets it right. Expectations of success at Old Trafford are very different from those at Pochettino’s current club.
At Tottenham he can secure a place in the Champions League each season and it will still be considered a triumph. He can draw 1-1 at Barcelona and it will be hailed as one of the greatest results in Tottenham’s history.
Yes, there is mild impatience about the absence of finite success — but Pochettino is considered one of Tottenham’s greatest managers without winning as many trophies there as Juande Ramos.
If he could land so much as an FA Cup for Tottenham, he would be chaired shoulder-high along the High Road.
By contrast, Van Gaal won the FA Cup at Manchester United on a Saturday and was sacked on the Monday.
United are a different animal, with very different expectations. Meaning that while a season of transition, a season in which Pochettino, say, restores United to the top four, will be seen as a reasonable start, after that demands rise dramatically.
The poisonous atmosphere around Old Trafford saw to Mourinho’s demise, but even if the air had been filled with nothing more toxic than birdsong, United would still be considered to be in the market for a new manager in the summer. Any time United are outside the top four — and certainly when they are out of it by 11 points plus significant goal difference after 17 matches — the manager will be considered vulnerable.
And Pochettino’s record at Tottenham — for all his fine football and the promotion of youth — would put him on the borderline if transposed to Manchester. Might this then impact on his appeal to Real Madrid? Potentially, yes.
MADRID want the Spanish-speaking manager who has made Tottenham a force in Europe; who has come close to winning the league at a club that has not known success of that kind since 1961; who has developed some of the most promising young players in Europe, not least Harry Kane.
They want the coach who is not scared to attack at the Nou Camp and who would not entertain a position at Barcelona due to long-standing loyalty to Espanyol.
Yet, would a manager recently ousted by United because he could not win the league or the major European trophy they crave, have that same appeal? And, as good as he is, could Pochettino guarantee he would turn United around, restore them to the heights achieved under Ferguson?
In the words of new Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl: ‘If you want guarantees, buy a washing machine.’
Pochettino is an excellent manager, and has impressed in both of his Premier League positions, but United are proving extraordinarily problematic in the post-Ferguson years.
It would certainly help to have an ally as director of football, and the dream team plainly pairs Pochettino and Paul Mitchell, who worked with him at Southampton and then Tottenham and is now with RB Leipzig.
Equally, United’s squad is far from weak, certainly beyond the back four.
Yet others in the Premier League are ahead and more cohesive — not least Liverpool and Manchester City — and nobody is going to be satisfied if United are firmly established as the third-best team in English football. Mourinho had them second last year, and he’s gone already.
The other complication comes if Real Madrid notice that Pochettino may be available and decide to make a move this summer, too.
Could a club of that size, or a president with the ego of Florentino Perez, rise above rejection?
It is different if Pochettino stays at Tottenham — but if he leaves, and snubs Madrid a second time, will he be given a third opportunity? These are all factors he must take into account before deciding on his next career move.
It was only last month that Mourinho was bemoaning the changing relationship between United and Tottenham.
Recalling the days when United shopped in London for talents such as Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov, he asked: ‘Is Manchester United bigger than Tottenham? I think everybody would say yes.
‘Can you buy Tottenham’s best players? No, they don’t sell. They are so powerful that they can say no. Can we bring Harry Kane? Dele Alli? Christian Eriksen? Son Heung-min? No. So who is more powerful now?’
He has a point. Premier League money has made it easier for some of the smaller big clubs to resist United’s overtures in a way they could not previously.
It was not too long ago that Daniel Levy was considered a chairman who would always do a deal for the right price, but even with the financial demands of the new stadium, he has clung to Tottenham’s stellar talent.
He may do the same with Pochettino — certainly if the manager is not agitating for a move. Yet if the pressure becomes intolerable, and the compensation agreeable, it may still be wise for United’s No 1 guy to look before he leaps.
This is not the club it once was. It is a big club, a wonderful club — but a problem club.
It is making fools of men who thought they knew how to win, casting shadows on their career paths and traducing reputations as it thrashes around for answers to its malaise.