From the day of his arrival I had a great feeling about him. We saw each other every day, went out to supper together and spent hours through the night talking about football and how we could win the next game. Our families got on very well. Mauricio was not just a teammate, he was and still is a friend.
Later on, as coach, he made us believe in what had seemed impossible, namely saving ourselves from relegation earlier than any of us would have dreamed. We were bottom of the table at that time. I was trying to get over a calf injury but he put us all to work. He made us believe in the path he wanted us to take because it would make us better players, better people and a better group. Training sessions were much more professional and very clear. And you saw in yourself every day that you were better physically, and that tactically the team did what he asked of them. What’s more – it was working well.
In March 2009 on the 27th weekend of the season we were losing 3–1 and were down to ten men. According to what Mauricio told me later the referee said to him, ‘Either you take de la Peña off or I will send him off.’ He thought about replacing me but in the very next play I scored to make it 3–2 and we later drew level with a goal from Nene. We earned a draw from a game that just didn’t seem possible. At the end of the game I said, ‘You will think I am mad but we are going to save ourselves.’ And that message came from what I saw on a daily basis, things that the fans don’t see. Today Mauricio says those words helped him achieve confidence in the squad. From that moment we all believed it was going to happen.
That season I scored twice against Barcelona at the Camp Nou and we beat them. I was just coming back from a long injury of about six to eight weeks, and he told me to go and play and enjoy myself, although it probably wasn’t going to be very enjoyable! Us rock bottom, them top. But we got the type of luck that you need at the most opportune of moments. Obviously we were ecstatic but when you are bottom of the pile, you still have a long way to go before you can achieve your objective; we had to win the next game, and the one after that and another one. For that you had to keep calm, which is what Mauricio did.
I would have liked to have played more games under him, but the last two years I spent most of the time injured. In my last match he gave me the chance to say my goodbyes to the fans and to the stadium, and for gestures like that I love him like a brother.
One thing I will tell you though is that he is a bandit when it comes to playing football-tennis. And I’ve told him as much!
I recently came to see him in London and noticed that he continues to have the same leadership qualities that I first saw in him in our first group chat at Montjuïc. And that helps him achieve the best possible results because his pupils have blind faith in everything he says. For me he is one of the top five coaches working in the world today.
Jordi Amat
I was playing in the second team, Espanyol B, in the third tier at the time. Pochettino saw two or three of our games. One day he came over to Álvaro Vázquez and me, and said, ‘You aren’t a third-division player. I’ll register you with the first team and you’ll come up with me.’ I also remember that he gave me the number 5. He said to me, ‘It’s time for someone else to wear the number 5 shirt,’ which had been his. I was thrilled about that.
I made my debut at 17 and he explained how he’d made his debut under Bielsa, also aged 17. He said, ‘Stay calm and play your game. You’ve fought for and dreamt about this, so it’ll go well.’ That’s what he said in the week leading up to my debut. Knowing that he’d also made his debut at 17 gave me so much confidence and reassurance for whenever the moment would arrive.
I also remember that my second game was at the Bernabéu. Someone got injured and I had to come on. He told me to mark Sergio Ramos at corners. I looked at him with the face of a . . . well, scared 17-year-old . . . And he said to me, ‘You’re right, mark Kaká instead.’ There wasn’t exactly anyone easy to mark.
He made Álvaro Vázquez do some type of taekwondo or something similar because he didn’t feel comfortable with the physical side of the game and that’s what football is about. And so he had lessons and took it seriously.
I’ll always remember Mauricio’s sincerity and direct approach. I think that’s very important. It’s really difficult to find people in the football world who always say it as it is, but he’s one of the few. A couple of months later he said to me, ‘Look, Jordi. You’re young and you need to play.’ I was 18. So we arranged a loan deal to Rayo Vallecano, which went very well, and I then went on to sign for Swansea. I owe him lots.
Adam Lallana
When Fonte said there was a rumour about Pochettino, I had to look him up on Google. It was when it was made official that we met for the first time. We had four or five captains at our club, so José Fonte, Kelvin Davies, maybe Morgan Schneiderlin, Ricky Lambert and I went to the stadium to meet him with Nicola Cortese, who arranged it. It was January and snowing. We must have been waiting a while in the board room, and then Mauricio eventually came in with Toni and Miki. I’ll never forget, Mauricio came in and he was in a suit and he looked amazing and he had a fragrance on, overdid it a bit, but I was impressed. Straight away. His staff weren’t in a suit so they looked more informal, they were in jeans and a shirt or whatever. Great impression straight away, and a hug. Jesús was the interpreter because his English was the best out of the bunch.
He took us in his second week to a training camp in Barcelona and we stayed in a hotel in the mountains. There was nothing going on there. We got a taxi one afternoon to Barcelona and the boss took us for tapas and jamon. It was nice to be in his environment within the first few weeks. We trained on Barcelona’s training pitch, and he got us bonding and explained how he wanted us to play. He kept saying ‘press, press, press’.
I remember we’d had a lot of tactical stuff without the ball. How do we set up from the opponent’s goal-kick if they play short? Who runs there? And where does the midfield move and where do the back-four slide? If they play back to the keeper, who runs through to the keeper? Someone always has to run through to the keeper to keep him under pressure, and the best thing about it was being told what to do, so you knew what you were doing was right. That was something I’d never really experienced before as a player.
But the manager wasn’t stupid. He didn’t change everything. And then that summer, the next pre-season, we went to Peralada for a training camp. It was a basic hotel, nothing fancy, pitches, pool, double sessions, and getting us fit.
He treated us like adults. He said that the four or five captains had to get together every now and again if he wanted to get a message across to the group. There were no strict rules. We had no fear, even playing away at United. ‘It doesn’t matter the result as long as we give our all.’
The word ‘brave’ was used a lot. I remember one conversation I had with him on a Friday before we played Liverpool. He said to me, ‘How would you rather play tomorrow? Would you rather sit off them at goal-kicks and let them have the ball or would you rather go man for man?’ I had a think for about 20 seconds and then said, ‘No, we’ll go man for man and then press them high.’ He gave me a slap on the back and said, ‘Good, good.’ We beat Liverpool and Chelsea at home, which were two massive results for us in staying up that season. But when we were playing well, he would never be full of praise. He would always want more.
When he first came in I was injured and when I came back he used to take me off during games, even at the start of the next season. A lot of people were asking me, ‘Why are you coming off in games, is it bothering you? . . . You need to speak to the manager, or family, or agent.’ But I had too much respect to say to him, ‘Why are you bringing me off?’ I knew he would have a reason. So I just kept doing what I was told. I trusted him that much.
Sometimes he would join in the games, but he was a cheat. He was never in the middle. He would be like, stop, stop, stop, it is a fault, but he was the one fouling! He does mention his past sometimes. He sent me a clip the other day of the Spurs tea
m reacting to that goal that he scored with Espanyol in the league against Valencia at the Olympic stadium when he curled it into the top corner. Obviously, the Owen penalty in the 2002 World Cup came up few times – he will never accept it, but he did foul Owen! [laughs].
He broke the news about my England call-up to me. He got me in the office. He told me on my own actually. Ricky Lambert got called up first and next it was me. I think he did it with a joke, you know. It was a very proud moment.
There was a conversation I will always remember when I spoke to him about the captaincy. We were sat down for about two hours on the pitch after training, sitting on the grass. It was a nice day, it was April. It’s difficult to recall the whole chat, we literally spoke for about two hours – it probably took longer because Jesús was translating – and that’s when I spoke about my Spanish surname and my family origin. That conversation got very deep and I started talking to him about the chairman ringing me after games. That was unsettling me, the pressure, maybe I was not ready for all of it, I was not being myself. The calls from Cortese stopped. A couple of months later my dad met him and the boss treated him like a king.
It was quite strange towards the end of the season because we were safe, we were tenth and we finished eighth. But no one knew what direction the club was going. There were rumours that the club wanted to be sold, about players leaving, and no one came out and gave Mauricio a plan for the future. I remember I was in his office more than ever speaking about it all. ‘I didn’t want to leave, I didn’t want this to end, but we’ve got to,’ I was telling him, and he really had nothing to say. He said he couldn’t see himself being here because nobody was giving him a direction or plan, so the writing was on the wall that we would end up going our separate ways. I knew of the Liverpool interest and even though he ended up going to Tottenham, it wasn’t possible for me to follow him. He’d only just walked through the door and my direction was different, and we both just respected that fact and that maybe our relationship would be different if I worked for him again.
We decided to go for a meal; it was at the end of the season just before I went off to the World Cup. He’d left the club, but I hadn’t yet. I signed for Liverpool after the World Cup. It was me, Mauricio, Jesús, Miki, Toni and Javi, the physio. We were speaking about our times together. He recounted his meeting with Daniel Levy, and I was telling him about their squad and who I thought he’d like and who I thought he wouldn’t like.
When we said goodbye, I was upset.
I’d love to work with him again. In the meantime I’m enjoying his success and I’m sure he’s enjoying mine as well.
We are in touch, we talk about results, how the family is . . . I’d be lying to say I don’t support his teams. I wanted Tottenham to win the league. For that Chelsea game, it was 2–2, and me and Henderson – Henderson is an adopted Spurs fan as well because I tell him all the time about Mauricio – were watching it and we were off our chairs. He’s done brilliantly since he has been there.
He always says to me, ‘Why do you always up your game against me?’ But I don’t particularly. Whenever we play his teams I know it’s going to be an intense game because Tottenham and Liverpool play in very similar ways. The last game we played must have been good to watch for a neutral. Lots of chances, White Hart Lane early in the season, 1–1, Milner and Rose, just great quality everywhere. It was intense and that’s just the way that football should be played. Sometimes if I am close to the technical area or taking a throw-in near him I catch his eye, and I just have to look away or I end up laughing.
Luke Shaw
When he gave me the first hug, I thought, ‘Who is this guy? What is he doing?’ He didn’t speak English and training was a little bit weird in comparison to how it was done before. So I was . . . ‘What’s going on?’
He used to make me a drink in the morning. I didn’t eat badly, but he used to think that my diet wasn’t good. So he made me a smoothie each morning made of spinach, loads of fruit and vegetables. He never told me what it was . . . he told me at the end . . . I used to go into his office and he’d let me sit in his seat. That’s how much he loved me. He was like, ‘No one ever sits there but me, but you can sit there.’ It was like a family thing. I’d sit there and he’d have my drink ready for me. Sometimes it was before training and sometimes it was after. Sometimes I’d go in the back way if I was late, and he’d send someone to get me. Or if I was leaving, you have to walk past his office, and I’d hear [makes knocking sound on desk], and he’d be knocking on the window.
He used to call me his son. That’s how good our relationship was. I’ve had lots of ups and downs, but when I was with Pochettino it was only ever up, up, up.
I remember him saying one day, ‘You can be the best, but you just have to believe in yourself.’ And I think at that point he was the one who changed my mentality. He made me feel that I was the best. He’d show me clips of my games and say, ‘You could do this better.’ Not in a horrible way. Not I could have done better, but I should have done better, because he knows I can be better.
He was always pushing me. I was the only player who he’d bring back in the afternoon. I’d come back at five o’clock with just him and Jesús. I never complained because I loved working under him. I’d come back, do some runs, and then he and I would play football-tennis for about an hour. And it was so competitive. Because he never wants to lose. And he cheats as well. He would have his assistant manager as referee, but anything that was borderline in or out . . . the decision was always in favour of Poch.
He’d let me go in his changing room before or after games. If the team had a bad game he would ask, ‘What’s wrong with everyone? Is the team down? Do they need more days off?’ He was talking to me like that and I was only 17. He always used to say, ‘Just play. Play how you want to play. Feel free.’ The whole team did and that’s why we were flying.
He wanted to be the first to tell me about my first call-up for England. Again the knock on the window and he told me in a really weird way and I said, ‘You’re joking!’ and he said, ‘No, I got the call and they want you for England.’ I think I sort of knew that I was in the England squad. But when he called me in and gave me a massive hug it did feel like a family bond to see how happy he was.
The hardest thing for me was when I told him I was leaving. I’ve never seen a sadder face than when I told him. He was devastated, disappointed. I spent many hours in his office that week. He wasn’t begging me but he really wanted me to stay. Because the club was building and we had such good players.
He kept asking me, ‘Do you want to leave?’ Even on the training pitch he’d say, ‘Just think about it. It’s not the right time. I need you to stay and help me build this club.’ I’d say, ‘I’m still thinking about it. There’s a lot of things going on in my head.’
I could have left the year before but he convinced me to stay. The football and life was so good. I think that’s what made me the person I am because he and his staff were so good to me.
So anyway I eventually went in and said, ‘I want to leave,’ and he said, ‘Really?’ And then he said, ‘No. You’re not.’ And then we had a massive conversation about why I wanted to go and it was quite hard.
Part of me was thinking, ‘Pochettino has done so much for me.’ So inside I wanted to stay with him because he was such a key part of my development. I didn’t want to let go of that. We were so close. I used to go to dinner with him. The first time he was staying at a hotel. And he told me to go to the hotel. So I went and had dinner with the four coaches. Only one of them spoke English, the other three couldn’t speak English at all. So I went there and they were all talking away and laughing and I didn’t have a clue . . . It felt sort of weird to go to dinner with the manager. It was more than once. It was nice and it gradually got better because he could speak more English. So it was nicer. We had so many laughs together.
I think with Southampton he achieved the impossible. We were one of the best footballing teams in th
e league. The bit I don’t get is how Southampton fans do not like him after what he did. I think it’s because he wasn’t there for too long. But we were a team fighting relegation and he changed our game and our mentality. If he goes somewhere else he’s going to fly wherever he goes. He could go anywhere.
I do hope that I can play for him again one day. And I think he really wants me to play under him again.
We exchanged messages when he saw me with the Manchester United shirt, but not many because he was really disappointed in me. He’s said to me since that I broke his heart.
But he spoke with me when I broke my leg. Obviously I was in a really emotional place. It was the day or the day after. He called me on my phone. I had been flying, the timing was so bad. He was thinking of anything he could say that would be nice for me to hear. I was crying and he was sad too.
Jay Rodriguez
He definitely made me feel different about the game. Things like the dart task we did during pre-season. You have to push against the dart with your neck and you feel that it is going to go through your neck, but he says if you push forward and believe that you are going to break it, you will. And then we had to walk on hot stones. He used to say that the mind is very powerful and if you believe you can do it then you can. It was little things like that that started to change the way we were thinking.
I remember I scored two against Cardiff and then a ball came towards me. But I was static and if I’d moved forward I would have got a hat-trick. The following week he told me that he needed to show me something and he asked me why I stood still. It’s always in your mind that two’s not enough, three’s not enough, you’ve got to keep going.
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