by Mauricio Pochettino was under similar pressure before facing Aston Villa, when he turned to his assistants in November 2014 as Tottenham’s new manager after his team fell behind at Villa Park and joked that maybe that they would all have to pack their bags. the next day.
It was the game he has long cited as the turning point in his Spurs career and when his Chelsea side face Villa in the FA Cup fourth round replay on Tuesday night he may be praying for them. It is a sign of how short-lived Chelsea are that it would take more than a stunning Cup win at Villa Park to change the mood around a club now more than 18 months in their absence.
It comes 10 years since that 2-1 win over Villa this year, the second free-kick goal from 22-year-old Harry Kane. Spurs finished the season in fifth place and Pochettino, who had just 11 points from his first nine games before Villa Park, had momentum. What his team said after Villa scored was a way of dealing with the stress of the moment, he said.
“It’s a smile [and] ‘Come on, we should believe’. It’s always like this in football. A player who is sad for various reasons cannot perform. When you come to a new club and the pressure is always necessary for a player to find a place. [He needs to] I feel good and I feel happy. He is not [just] about the quality.”
After Chelsea’s two debilitating defeats against Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers, and a rebellious mood among the supporters, this was an appeal from Pochettino for patience from the fans. He set out in detail how the form, fitness and confidence of this young squad has come and gone and that 15 of his squad are still not in the best condition at any given time.
“It’s about creating a team,” he said. “Building a team is really important. It’s like building a house. You must be sure of all the steps you take. If you make a mistake, the house starts moving and ‘Oh’ [it falls down]. After bringing in a nice sofa and furniture … we always need time and we are building from scratch.
“Sometimes you seem to move forward but sometimes you need to go back because some problems arise. You should think it will be good but after that maybe it will be better to go [something else]. It always takes time. Look at the project of Manchester City or Liverpool. It is always about time, and under very clear leadership like Pep [Guardiola] or Jurgen [Klopp]. It is so clear from that that you will build all these projects.”
The sounds offstage have been significant since Sunday. Thiago Silva’s wife Belle posting on social media that the club needed a change. Mykhailo Mudryk offering critical fans £10,000 to play football against him, one on one – as if to prove a point. Pochettino had no knowledge of the latter when asked at Cobham on Tuesday although he had a meeting with Thiago. Malo Gusto and Ben Chilwell both got cramps in the closing stages of the Wolves game, he said, as a result of too little game time.
“During these seven months we have players [who] fall [in level] and another they pushed. At the moment we are not lucky to have 14-15 players at the same level. That’s what affects the performance and we can’t be consistent – I trust this idea to transfer to the fans to be a little more patient and that’s the reality.
He said he trusted his squad above all else and denied there was any danger in doing so. “Why is it a risk? We understand, the players understand and the club understands. If the club does what you are telling me [sack him], it is not in my hands. I trust the players. I have confidence in the squad. I don’t know why I should risk trusting them.”
Pochettino said those factors he had no control over, such as “the stock market in New York or Tokyo, or the weather” did not affect him. His point was that the team was still developing and that problems were inevitable. “If there’s no rain on my farm, I can’t grow the crops,” he said, referring to his family’s business back in Argentina’s Santa Fe region. “You kill my family’s business on the farm and they need money. That is stress. With that you can lose your hair. But I can’t lose my hair because the opponent was better than us.”
Villa have returned to form with that 5-0 win over Sheffield United and the pressure is on Chelsea to stay in the only competition they still have a chance of winning this season. The club have yet to make any moves to sack Pochettino, although he is under pressure to improve. He said he had received a “very good text” from the owners although he did not specify whether it was from Behdad Egbali, who is in control of the club, and the main decision-maker. Or was it from Todd Boehly, the other key figure in the consortium.
