Pochettino offers two-word verdict on Tottenham relegation on The Overlap | OneFootball

Mauricio Pochettino has given his verdict on Tottenham’s relegation troubles on The Overlap and reflected on his time at Spurs.

Pochettino is now in charge of USMNT and will lead them in their home World Cup this summer but is “really sad” as he keeps a keen eye on what’s going on at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Spurs sit 18th in the Premier League, two points off West Ham in 17th with four games left to play as they look to retain their top flight status.

“It’s really sad, I really love Tottenham, it’s going to be a part of my life, an important part of my life as a coach, a personal life too,” Pochettino said on The Overlap’s latest episode of Stick to Football.

“It’s really sad because I know how the people are suffering there, inside the club and also the fans.

“It’s difficult to accept, but the moment when we left, what I told to the media and what I told internally was my feeling and my vision. You need to talk during the day that you are there.

“When you left or when you are sad or when you decide to move again, I think it’s not time to talk. If you talk, things for me are not right.

“But I think when I was there, I tried to explain what was my vision. We were in a situation that was amazing because I think the training ground, we finished the training ground, we finished the stadium, we moved to Wembley to play, to Milton Keynes to play many games. At the same time, we were very competitive.

“But this idea of how it can affect the environment and the people outside and the people that make the decision inside… It’s one title, it’s one to win a FA Cup, it’s to win a Carabao Cup.

“It’s a shame. We were winning every season because with all the circumstances that we were fighting, we spent 18 months with no one signing. That was a record in the Premier League.

“We had money to spend but not the type of money to improve, to be close to win or to challenge. We challenged, we challenged to win. But we missed this last step.”

Pochettino then explained what he looks for when taking on a new job while reflecting on his arrival at Tottenham.

He said: “It was difficult. Now it’s difficult to talk about that because it was a really, really difficult situation. Because one of the things that I always like is if someone offers me a project, the possibility to coach, I want to know the reality.

“I want to know what they expect from me. I want to know what I need to do, which is the reality of the club. And I think what happened in Tottenham is that I understood what they expected from me, from the beginning.

“Of course it was tough, but I think I cannot complain. Only what I wanted to tell them is to say, ‘OK, that is the idea, that is the strategy, the philosophy of the culture that we were creating there’. But if we wanted to be competitive, we need some time to make different decisions.

“The problem is when the assessment is not coming from inside to the club, and the assessment comes from outside. And when people start to intoxicate things and say, no, you should win with this team.”