ON NEYMAR, MBAPPE… AND HIS NEW LOVE FOR PEP!
Yes I’ve got Neymar and Mbappe but to win things EVERYONE is important
The lights are on, the camera is rolling and Mauricio Pochettino leans into the lens, pretends to re-do his hair, touches at his eyebrows and jokes about the good fortune of strong genes inherited from his parents.
having embarked on a point about Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, and managing Paris Saint-Germain’s megastars of world football, Pochettino has drifted on to the subject of fly- on-the-wall documentaries.
‘I am not going to change,’ he insists. ‘I am not an actor, I’m a football coach. I am like what I am.’
Pochettino arrived in Paris in January to find Amazon filming behind the scenes — just as they were when he left Tottenham in November 2019, although his role in the final cut of Spurs’ All or Nothing series proved minimal, as it quickly became the Jose Mourinho Show.
‘We were in the first episode for 25 minutes,’ he shrugs, and grins again at an audience of reporters who know he was never comfortable having cameras in his Spurs dressing room.
‘Yes, yes, we are doing Amazon and I was acting a little bit because the club asked me to do something but I am spontaneous with the players, the relationship is natural and that is the key.
‘Of course, Neymar and Mbappe are important, but if you want to achieve big things, everybody needs to feel they are important.
‘I try to empathise and find out how they are and create a good emotional link.’
Pochettino’s words will spark wistful memories at Spurs, where they came to adore his holistic nature and obsession with generating positive energy — whether that involved a bowl of lemons on his desk or challenging his players to walk on hot coals or break arrows against their throats.
Neymar has warmed to the embrace of Pochettino. Perhaps it is the South American connection but after Unai emery and Thomas Tuchel, the Brazilian is enjoying a more tactile approach from an Argentine who was a team-mate of Ronaldinho for two years at PSG.
‘Brazilian players are always different,’ says Pochettino. ‘They have something special inside.
‘ They are very open, happy people, always smiling. They love to play football because it’s like a dance and they play like they are dancing.
‘They don’t feel the stress. They play with freedom. It is a characteristic of the country. They need to feel good and to feel happy to perform in the best way.
‘Ronaldinho was a really nice guy and Neymar, from the day we arrived, he was very humble, he listens and accepts the instructions in a very good way. Like Mbappe, they both love to work and they love football.’
Mbappe, who sparked a fitness scare when he came off after scoring twice at Metz on Saturday, has been imperious under Pochettino. he has 21 goals in 22 games, including a hat-trick in Barcelona after promising his new boss a victory in the Nou Camp. ‘It was in the dressing room when he was having a massage,’ says Pochettino.
‘I said, “have you played here? have you won here?”
‘he said, “No”, and I told him I won here once with espanyol, and I explained the game. he said to me very seriously, “OK, tomorrow will be the second time you win”.
‘I said, “OK, are you sure?” and he said, “Yes, don’t worry, we are going to win”.
‘Then we played a fantastic game and beat them 4-1. he was laughing at the end and saying to me on the pitch, “I told you, I told you, I told you”.’
Mbappe, 22, speaks fluent Spanish and english, with an insatiable thirst for knowledge.
‘I say to him I need to practise my French,’ adds Pochettino. ‘he says, “Sure, but it’s better for me to talk in english”.
‘Kylian is still very young but very mature. he’s very confident in his skills and talent. he’s very open, he’s a clever guy with an amazing talent.
‘Like Neymar, he is in the top five players in the world.
‘he loves football, loves to talk about football. he asks about england. how is the game? how is the mentality and culture there and in Spain and Argentina?
‘he will watch games from england, France, Italy and Germany every day. It’s amazing to discover this type of talented player and how he loves football.’
Thenotion of Pochettino as a coach who cannot work with big personalities seems ludicrous. ‘It’s normal that people need to find things to doubt (about) you,’ says the 49-year-old. ‘To find something that is maybe wrong in our way of coaching, of working or managing people.
‘But we worked with superstars at Tottenham. We were dealing every day with the captain of France who lifted the World Cup (hugo Lloris). We were dealing every day with harry Kane, Son heung-min.
‘Now, we’re here at Paris SaintGermain with players like Neymar, Mbappe, Marco Verratti, Keylor Navas — plenty of talented players, big characters. The most important thing is to be natural, genuine and spontaneous in the way we manage them.’
Pochettino defines PSG as the ‘perfect project’ to tempt him back after 14 months out of football. But it did not get off to the perfect start, as he recorded a positive Covid test and had to isolate almost as soon as he had arrived.
Four months on and he is still lodging in a hotel midway between Parc des Princes and the training ground, along with three of his coaching staff — including his son Sebastiano, who is a fitness coach.
Reacquainting himself with the city has proved impossible under
France’s 7pm m Covid curfew but gradually his identity and values are making an n impression.
An hour into to last month’s 2-1 home defeat at by Nantes, a message filtered tered down to the touchline from om PSG’s sporting director Leonardo onardo to say that Angel di Maria’s ria’s home had been burgled while le his family were inside. Reports rts later claimed a safe was stolen en containing jewellery jewelore worth more than £400,000.
The game was level at 1-1 but Pochettino replaced Di Maria immediately y and disappeared into the dressing ssing room with an arm around his player, abandoning abandonuntil his post until he could be sure everyone e was safe. ‘No one is
prepared prepa to live this type of situation,’ situat he says. ‘Th ‘The moment we knew about it, the game gam ends.
‘ The game is important, import it is our job job, it is our responsibility respons to win the game, but the family fami is first.
‘ Football Footb took second place. The players p layer knew something someth had happened happen and I was inside in with ( (Di Di Maria) Ma until he was able to connect with his wife. In the end, we lost the game because it was a crazy moment.’
The lost points may prove critical. PSG trail leaders Lille by a point at the top of Ligue 1 with four games to go as they seek an eighth title in nine years. But the bonds inside the camp were tightened.
In the Champions League they are growing in stature, avenging the defeat by Bayern Munich in last season’s final by beating the Germans in this year’s last eight.
In the previous round, PSG had crushed Barcelona to soothe scars of a tie in 2017 known as La Remontada (the Comeback) when PSG led 4-0 after the first leg only to lose the return 6-1 on a night when Neymar dazzled for the Catalans.
‘The Champions League loves us,’ says Pochettino. ‘Any time we are involved in Champions League games people are not indifferent.
‘People want to watch… need to watch. Against Barcelona and Bayern Munich we grabbed the attention because both ties were fantastic. People enjoyed watching and they were two amazing ties and massive wins for the club.
‘Before we played Barcelona here, all the talk was about La Remontada. It was a bit of a strange feeling. Only a few people inside the club and the players — the most important factor — were not a little bit nervous and paranoid about it.
‘They were thinking, “Oh no, 4-1 (up) again, Barcelona, what’s going to happen if they score first?” We were really calm and we reached the quarter-finals.
‘ Then we were drawn with Bayern Munich and it was, “Oh no, it’s them again, the best team in the world”.
‘No one believed in us but here we are in the semi-finals.
‘We have, for sure, a massive fight against Manchester City, one of the best teams in the world with unbelievable players and Pep Guardiola — for me the best coach in the world. It’s going to be another fantastic tie.’
The breathless thrills of this PSG run echo the Tottenham adventure in 2018-19, when a dramatic VAR-affected quarterfinal win over Guardiola’s City was followed by the emotional scenes at Ajax, where a staggering fightback left Pochettino on his knees and in tears.
‘Amazing, two years ago,’ he says, recalling the win over City. ‘The atmosphere was unbelievable. We miss the fans a lot. You can’t believe it when you watch all the things that happened in the second leg… 3-2, 4-2, 4-3 and at the end the disallowed (City) goal with VAR.
‘You need to play well and you need to fight but sometimes in this type of competition you need a little bit of luck to go through.
‘For me, this game and the semi- final against Ajax were amazing, very emotional. Always in the Champions League it will be there and all the people in football are going to remember.’
Remember? How could we forget?
Brazilian players have something special inside. They are very open, happy, always smiling. They love to play football because it’s like a dance ON MBAPPE He loves to talk about football. He asks about England. How is the game? How is the mentality and the culture there and in Spain and Argentina? ON CITY We have a massive fight against one of the best teams in the world with unbelievable players. It’s going to be a fantastic tie