MAURICIO POCHETTINO DODGED the chance to categorically confirm that he will still be in charge at Tottenham next season.
The Argentine raised doubts over his future following Spurs’ disappointing FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United when he told beIN SPORTS: “I told your colleague before that with me or another coaching staff the club needs to push on, working in this direction and will be fantastic one day for Tottenham to reach the same level as the clubs like Manchester United and Manchester City.
“But it’ll be a long way to work to arrive at this next level.”
Pochettino has in the past been linked as a potential successor to Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid, while there are suggestions that he is in the frame to take the vacancy that will be left by Unai Emery at Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season, although Thomas Tuchel remains the favourite.
The 46-year-old was asked if he will lead Spurs into their new stadium at White Hart Lane next season, but seemingly chose to deflect the question by talking in more generic terms over the direction of the club’s project.
“After the disappointment of the result against Manchester United, I was very honest to tell you that we create a philosophy and a project for the long term and trying to be different to other clubs,” he said.
“I wanted to say [with comments after the FA Cup defeat] that the club is not going to change.
“If I stay here for three years more, after three years the project will not change. The most important thing now is that project we need to keep pushing.
“And, of course, we are frustrated about bad results. But we cannot change because the club cannot change.
“It cannot go ‘okay that is the project in Tottenham and now we are going to do the same that Manchester United are doing now’.
“Tottenham needed, when we arrived here, to have a clear idea about discipline, rules, principles, a project to develop, to use young players and that was how we created this project all together.
“Whether it is me or another, that is the right project to keep pushing, don’t be disappointed if we still don’t win a trophy.”
Pochettino did, though, suggest that his contract at Spurs means discussions on his future are immaterial, adding: “I still have three years contract here, so there’s no point to talk about that.”
The former Southampton boss believes that Spurs are “victims of our success” and that the club are ahead of where they planned to be at this stage under his leadership.
“I remind you that in my first meeting with [chairman] Daniel Levy and [owner] Joe Lewis, the target was to arrive in the new stadium in four years and to create a team to have the possibility to fight for the top four and the second year to play Champions League,” he said.
“We are victims of our success because we are ahead in the project.”
Great save by Kelleher near the end. Comfortable afternoon for him
Top player.
Super performance and result albeit against a woeful Watford. Unlikely to be a worse performance by any PL team this season. Salah is unbelievable and his goal was magical, give him the contract his performances and goals deserve. Great to see Firmino scoring. Though Kelleher had nothing to do he kept his concentration to make a very good save at the end. Gonna be a tight title race. Surprised Salah and Mane played the 90 minutes, Minamino could have done with game time especially against that Watford team.
Mo Salah is WOW!!! a pleasure to watch him…..Firmino not bad either : )
Time to sack Ranieri…….
@John S: dilly ding dilly dong
@Heckler davies: dilly ding, dilly gone
Class win and 3 more handy points. We will be hard to stop This season as we put last seasons blip behind us
Danny Rose will sleep tonight. Great performance against an albeit poor side!!
Give Mo all the money. Almost 0% chance of being able to replace him
Lewandowski and Salah are the best players in the world on current form.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a PL side as bad as that Watford side today….if they lost 10-0 it wouldn’t have been a surprise! Woeful…
@Ottomaaan: you forgot to mention that they were up against a solid side with a rampant front three, there, I fixed it for you…. :)
@Gordon Larney: no need to fix anything. That was the worst performance I’ve ever seen from a PL side, dreadful stuff and Liverpool could have put 10 past them.
@Ottomaaan: have to agree. I was at the game and never seen such a bad performance from a PL team.
Salah in great form. But how long canhe hold that form? He has 20-25 goals in him a season, but he’s up and down. If he held this form, he’d be close to 40 goals?
Bigger tests against Athletico and United on the way.
@Finn Faulkner: did you like your own comment…
@Finn Faulkner: how long can he do that. ? He has been doing it for the last 4 seasons. 104 goals in 166 games in the Premier league but you think he should score more. Okay so
@Finn Faulkner: you’re gonna need bigger bait on that hook ….
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: But by that metric 4 seasons at 40 goals would be 160 goals. He hasn t done that. But my point is that if he can keep that killer hat on his head for a prolonged period, and with our squad almost injury free, he could break records for us. I’m HOPING he keeps this lethal form indefinitely. He still can’t be put in the Messi/Ronaldo category until he starts being seriously clinical. I’d love to see him win the Balloon d’Or this year (or the next)
@len len: No, but seeing as you need likes, here, have mine. Have a lovely day.
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: you included his Chelsea stats there, it’s 102 in 153 for Liverpool
@Shane Roche: It’s still an amazing number of goals per season, but I think he can go even further, he needs to keep this current form. Biggest tests are against Athletico and then United.
That salah. Goal was pure roy of the rovers.. Pure art.. He must be a great dancer..
As good as Liverpool are, and they are really good. This in my opinion is all about Klopp.