POCH THE STAR SPURS CAN’T LOSE
IT MAY not bother him, but Jose Mourinho was not the only frontrunner to take over from Louis van Gaal at Manchester United.
Members of the Old Trafford hierarchy, including Sir Alex Ferguson, also had a strong fancy for Mauricio Pochettino.
In the end it was the Tottenham manager’s lack of trophies that counted against him, but Pochettino knows all about United’s interest and the chances are that they will be back one day, if somebody else doesn’t get there first.
This is relevant today simply because it cuts to the very heart of the issue placed front and central by Danny Rose this week.
The fact that Rose, a talented but unexceptional left back, has indicated that he feels he isn’t paid what he is worth is not what threatens Spurs.
No, what threatens Tottenham as they continue to travel in the financial slipstream of their Premier League rivals is that it is only a matter of time before Pochettino craves the opportunity to punch his weight, too.
It is not Pochettino’s own salary, north of £ 5m a year, that will concern him but a lack of competitiveness in the transfer market that will remain at least until the club’s new stadium is on stream at the start of the 2018-19 season.
The popular summer narrative of a big club happily relying on players from their own academy while others spend heavily on improving their squads is romantic but false in part. Pochettino does like to promote young players. This is why he has not signed a central defender to replace the unwanted Kevin Wimmer.
However, the Tottenham boss has been trying to buy players too, only for the club to be outmuscled in the hunt for the likes of Thomas Lemar of Monaco. If Lemar does leave France it will be to go to Arsenal.
This is a frustration Pochettino wears relatively well. He knew the score when he arrived from South- ampton three years ago. He was never lied to. But success can change a person’s outlook quickly and the 45–year- old knows his chances of bridging the gap between second and first in the Premier League depend as much on money as they do on his own abilities as a coach.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is known for the hard line he takes on player sales. He also knows that he is occasionally vulnerable, though. He knows he doesn’t pay his top players anything like the amounts they can earn elsewhere.
This is why speculation around Dele Alli angers him so much and why he has been moved once already to contact a top club and warn them off Eric Dier.
In the Spurs dressing room, there is loyalty to Pochettino. The Argentine has improved the players beyond measure. But every footballer knows his worth, and Dier and others are beginning to wonder just why they turn up on England duty to find international team-mates earning so much more than they do.
Players come and go, though. Managers do not.
There will always be another Danny Rose. But there will not be another Mauricio Pochettino.