You don’t want to cross him or, more like, you don’t want to disappoint him. When you went on the pitch you wanted to die for him. I think it’s because he connects with people.
Every game we played under him we believed we were going to win, unless we were unlucky. You feel invincible.
And as a person he gave me that belief, he always believed in me. That’s something I still have to this day.
With my injury it was very sad, and he was almost as sad as I was, and through that period he was there for me. I remember at half-time he was so sad, and I was nearly crying. It was very difficult. He just said ‘Come on, it’s OK,’ basically to reassure me and then afterwards, ‘Don’t worry, you will come back strong.’
Probably the first time I played against him was this winter [2016]. It was strange. We got beaten and beaten badly actually [4–1 at home]. It wasn’t enjoyable but it was nice to see him afterwards. After the game I spoke to Jesús, Miguel and Toni, and we keep in touch and send messages to each other. Sometimes he will send me a clip of myself in training just as an encouragement to keep on going. He’s still a big part of me, he still gives me confidence. He still believes in me.
If he became England manager . . . I think we’d win everything. [laughs].
I think he is the best.
Hugo Lloris
I remember him as a player, with Argentina in the World Cup, with Paris Saint-Germain and Bordeaux, and I always had a great image of him. The way he played, his face, his attitude . . . he was a winner and I can see the same face today, with shorter hair. I remember when he signed for Paris everyone was questioning who this player from Espanyol was, forgetting he was an Argentinian international.
I have a great relationship with him as a man and, of course, as a professional. I never thought I would have such admiration for one of my managers. I respect my managers, but I don’t want to cross the line. My manager is my boss and I don’t want to be his friend but with him everything is natural.
It’s difficult to explain how grateful I am to Mauricio. It was a bad time for me at Tottenham. I was very disappointed with the way the club was going. I left lyon and I went to Tottenham, and for the first year I had some problems with the manager [André Villas-Boas]. When I signed for Tottenham I wanted to bring skill to help the club to fight for the top four, and I realised that it was not fully working – we were not progressing. In fact, quite the opposite. The second year I thought, ‘What is this club?’ We sold Bale and we bought eight players or something . . . but had no philosophy. I thought I would have to leave because I was losing my passion, my love for football, for the game. And when I met Mauricio he reawakened that in me. His way of understanding the game is just exactly why I love it – aggression on the pitch from everybody to recover the ball, but wanting to build from the back and share the ball around when we have it.
Even my wife told me that my face changed, she recognised me again, the player I was in Lyon and in Nice. In football and in life you meet some people that are very important. Mauricio is a massive step forward for me in my career. He is fresh, positive, not selfish, he thinks about the team. He doesn’t particularly like the spotlight – he has a lot of humility.
You can be a leader without shouting and he is the perfect example of this. OK, sometimes he shouts but it doesn’t happen a lot. Unlike when he was a player, as a manager he keeps a lot inside. That’s why after the game he does not like to talk to the players. Even in a bad way or good way he doesn’t like it. He prefers to save his energy.
It was not easy at the start. I heard a lot from the other players saying, ‘It’s too difficult, it’s crazy the way we work, I’ve never done this before in my career, blah blah blah.’ I was worried. I thought by the weekend the players would be dead. But then Jesús, who was in charge of fitness, said, ‘Don’t worry, you will see.’ I remember one day we beat Arsenal 2–1 at home. We were 1–0 down and played 95 minutes high intensity, pressing. A few days after he said to me and a few other players, ‘This is why we work so hard because we are going to play every game the same way.’ Now we were ready to run, to fight, to compete in every game. We changed our mentality. When a manager asks you to do something, you do it, but it’s better when he explains to you why you should do it.
Everything is recorded, in the gym and on the pitch. I was not too sure about that at the start. In fact, before I did not really like to go to the gym. But now I understand it. Even the recording. When you train, you give everything. You cannot hide. I get it. This is the way to see if your players are involved or not, to know your players better because maybe they are acting one way to your face and then doing something different behind your back. He judges a lot by body language.
After three months we were struggling but there were two key games where we started to change, when we started to put young players onto the pitch. They were more determined than the senior ones, showed more desire, more passion, and from that day it felt like players were fighting for him. Away to Aston Villa we were 1–0 down and we won 2–1 in the last minute. Same against Hull City. They were crucial moments, especially for the younger guys.
When he arrived he tried to find two or three players who would help him show the rest of the squad the right way. And in the second season more and more players bought into his philosophy. And the ones who were a bit more selfish and not prepared to be part of the collective started to leave. That’s how he made a strong squad ready to fight for each other.
I felt he handed me authority. ‘I will build a team around you and we will be competitive and we will fight with the top teams of this league,’ he told me. And it happened.
It’s clever how he does it. Nothing is compulsory. He always gives the options to the players. He likes to see players sharing moments. I remember before that players used to put their boots on and, one by one, they used to come out onto the pitch. He changed everything. He said that you have to come onto the pitch together. If you are the first to put your boots on, you should wait for the other players. It’s about giving responsibility to all the players about how they act.
When he gives a talk on the pitch then he likes the players to be very close to him. Little things, little details, but very, very important. It’s not about football, it’s more about human relations.
I heard an interview with Arrigo Sacchi and it was like I was listening to Mauricio Pochettino. Football is not about tactics, it’s about spirit, passion and desire. It’s not about things like 4-4-2. That may be the way you line up but then there is a lot of movement in the game. I think he likes to know his players, the people he has in front of him before he gets to know the footballer. Football is about ideas but players must believe in the concept and the philosophy.
The defeat against Newcastle was probably his worst day as a manager. I sat on the plane coming home after the game. He didn’t understand why some of the players had finished the season that way. He was very disappointed with some. He needed five days to digest the defeat. We fought all season not to finish that way. It meant we finished behind Arsenal after losing the last two games. He felt players were on holidays before the end of the season. When I came back from the Euros, I was in a different frame of mind – we had a good tournament. But he was still suffering. It was hard to see him so down.
I have learned a lot from him. I am from France and we are different in many senses, but from day one everything I like about football came from him. That’s why I am still here. I like Tottenham’s football and I like them as people too.
I am very committed to the club but even more to my manager. If he leaves, it will put everything into question, everything. If today I feel so well it’s thanks to him and Toni, my goalkeeping coach. I have faith in them, I believe in them and to be happy at Tottenham I need them.
Harry Kane
When I found out he was going to be manager I was quite excited because I knew I was going to have the opportunity to play if I did well, like young players did at South
ampton. I was about 20 years old, so obviously there were quite a few strikers ahead of me at the time; I was finding it difficult to get into the team. When we first met he was very easy to talk to. You could tell straight away he was very respectful and he wanted to get to know everyone, all the players, all the young ones as well. Sometimes when a manager comes he just wants to know the leaders. The first chat was just kind of meeting him as a group and saying hello and it wasn’t too in-depth. I wanted to do my talking and show him my personality on the pitch.
We went to Seattle. Then Chicago. Probably one of my favourite pre-season trips. But it was tough. That pre-season I came back from holiday and I thought I was in OK shape. We had our body fat test done and I was the highest in the team, something like 18 per cent! I didn’t really want to believe it. I was like, ‘Aargh! This is wrong!’ He had his own little drills, his own fitness test – it’s called the Gacons. It’s like a run that gets progressively harder. We did a lot of them in pre-season. A lot of tactical and shape work because obviously he wanted to instil own philosophy.
I learnt a lot in that short time. Certain movements, for instance. He was a defender himself so he knows what the striker should be doing to gain an edge. Sometimes we did one-on-ones with him, Miki or Jesús training with the strikers, sometimes we were in a group, just movements around the box, or trying to get in behind. He wants to play that high intensity, he wants runners in behind . . . I knew straight away that if I wanted to play in his team I would have to learn that quickly and adapt. He likes to film everything, so if he thinks something isn’t right in training he will show me on the clips.
As expected he was not afraid to give the younger players a chance. He wanted everyone on the same page, working in the same direction. It is difficult to do what he’s done in such a short amount of time.
I remember one early conversation. I was doing well in the Europa League at the start of his first Spurs season, but I wasn’t getting into the Premier League team for one reason or another, and I remember getting quite frustrated. So I went to see him and he explained to me that I wasn’t doing enough. He said that my body fat was high, I wasn’t trying as hard as I could, and that was it! Maybe other managers would try to beat around the bush and try to keep players happy but he was just straight up. He said, ‘You need to do this and this and that’s why you’re not in the squad.’ And it just hit me. This is what I’ve got to do. So I took that on board and I’ve been doing OK since.
In one of the first competitive games we played – AEL away in Cyprus, a Europa League qualifier – we were expected to win. We were 1–0 down at half-time, and he told us to ‘show some cojones’. He was really passionate and let it all out. To a lot of the players it was just a Europa League qualifier but from day one, that half-time he set the tone: he wants to win every game, he wants to win every moment and every challenge. He was so passionate. We won the game 2–1. But that doesn’t happen often at half-times.
I have not been to his place for a meal. Actually, I should invite him round to meet my daughter. He’ll have to come round one day. I’ll have a barbecue and we’ll spend some time together. Because he’s a family man I feel comfortable with him. Maybe with some managers you wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that but he’s a friend.
Sometimes I will just come in and go to the gaffer’s office to say hello to him. If we’ve been off for maybe a couple of days or been away on international break, he might start asking about your personal life – how’s the kids, how’s the Mrs – and then maybe we’ll start talking about the game, certain things in the game that we can do better.
He has told me ‘You can be the best striker in the world.’ We have a joke about it now and then and, of course, when I hear him say it in the media I know he’s just trying to give me confidence. But yeah, he’ll text me the next day to show me what he’s said publicly and then he’ll say, ‘But we need to work harder and we need to do more.’
Dele Alli
I didn’t know he was coming to the MK Dons v Manchester United game. When I heard, someone said he’d come to see Danny Welbeck. But as soon as I heard that Tottenham wanted me to come, in the last few days before the January transfer window closed, he was the main reason why I signed here. I was a youngster and I knew he wasn’t afraid to play youngsters. There aren’t many managers that do that. I came to have a look around the training ground but I think he was in Spain, so he wasn’t here when I signed. I didn’t see him till I came back for pre-season.
It was really hard and I didn’t know what he thought of me. The first proper one-on-one, it was with Jesús. They were speaking in Spanish and then Jesús said to me ‘He didn’t like you . . .’ or similar. The boss was staring me in the eye to see how I reacted. I was speechless! He paused for like a second, and he said ‘. . . but now he loves you.’
When you’re on the bench you can see him getting up and shouting and saying loads of . . . I don’t know what he’s saying! I’ve had to take Spanish lessons to try to learn what he’s saying! He’s helping me with it as well. He tries to speak to me in Spanish as much as he can. I’ve wanted to learn for a long time and now it’s a good opportunity to do so.
The season before last, there was a bit in the media about me, when everyone was saying I was losing my temper. He pulled me into his office and talked about himself as a player, and showed me some clips of him on YouTube, very aggressive. [laughs]. He’s scored some goals as well, and told me I need to watch and have a look at some so I can improve my finishing. He’s better than everyone! [laughs]. He jokes about it. But you can see he’s still got it when he gets involved in training. He was a half-decent player at least.
In his chats, he insists we all have to want it, there are no excuses for being tired and stuff. He does push everyone all the time.
At Palace, I scored a goal and I think I made it 2–1 in the last ten minutes. I watched the goal back and I saw that he had run all the way down the line and was involved in the hug. I had not realised.
Do I upset him? Me? Yeah, all the time. [laughs]. A few weeks ago we were doing some shape work and I was a bit annoyed, not at him but just with some stuff. I was walking in and looking at the floor and he told me to lift my head up and smile. Later, he pulled me into his office and talked to me about how if I’m not being happy and positive it can have an effect on everyone. I didn’t realise how much.
We had Monaco away in the Europa League on the day before the England squad was announced and I didn’t think I was going to make my debut in the squad. He called me over and said to me, ‘How would you feel about playing for England Under-19s?’ At the time I was Under-20 so I said, ‘I don’t think I can, I’m too old.’ And he said, ‘They’ve called me and you’re allowed to play for them next week.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah, OK, I’ll play for England whatever age group,’ and then he just looked at me and I thought that was it, I was about to walk away. And then he said, ‘Actually, I spoke to the manager [Roy Hodgson] and you’re going to play for the first team.’ I didn’t know what to believe, I didn’t know if he was trying to wind me up or not. But I was happy to share that moment with him. We had a little cuddle after! [laughs]. And I said ‘thank you’ because, obviously, I owe a lot of that to him.
Victor Wanyama
We were doing pre-season in Spain with Southampton. I thought I was fit. I arrived about 5 p.m. and thought I would have some dinner, go to bed and then go to training in the morning. But they said no, you’ve got to get changed, and then I went to do some running and the following day I was so tired. I thought I was fit but I ended up training with the keeper. And after training Pochettino came to me and said it’s a different level now so you have to catch up.
At Southampton there was a game when we were not playing well. And he came in and was very angry. He said, ‘I need you guys to go out there and take risks. Get out of your comfort zone.’ It was an away game against United. We won 1–0. It changed our mentality.
When I arrived at Spurs,
he took me to one side and he said, ‘Have you seen your little brother?’ and I said, ‘I don’t have a little brother,’ and then he showed me a video and it was me when I started at Southampton.
Before the Liverpool game in October, after drawing against West Brom and Bournemouth, he told us we had dropped four points and that against Liverpool we could improve. He showed us a video. From then on everyone played better. He then played a song. It was about life and how you have to take care of your friends. Always smile and be happy.
Harry Winks
First time I had a chat with him I was 17 or 18. I came in in the summer with my dad and I signed a professional contract with John McDermott. The gaffer had just signed for Spurs and he had come in to have a little look around the building. I was in the room waiting to sign and he walked in. He said he had watched my clips and told John McDermott to sign me up straight away but I think he was joking, to be honest. He never really sat down and said, ‘Right Harry, here is a plan,’ it was more like ‘Work hard, just keep working hard’, showing me by giving me more opportunities to train and travel with the first team.
My debut was against Partizan Belgrade. I think he brought me on for the last five minutes or so, and for me being a lifelong Spurs fan it was incredible. He put his arm around me, walked me up to the pitch and said to me, ‘Just go out there and enjoy it.’ I was going on for Paulinho. He said, ‘Work hard, be strong, enjoy it and ease into the game and you’ll just grow into it.’ I remember it just as a blur.
The match against West Ham was the first time that me and the gaffer actually had a bit of an emotional moment. It was after the game in the dressing room, I was still buzzing after scoring, on cloud nine, and I remember I was about to get into the shower, I had my towel around me and Toni told me to come into the coaches’ dressing room. All the coaches were in there – I think they had a glass of wine – and I remember just walking in with my towel on and the gaffer said, ‘I just want to say well done, congratulations.’ And he gave me a hug. There were no tears or anything. A few papers said there were tears – there weren’t, it was just a really emotional moment. I said to all the coaches that I appreciated it and thanked them for all the belief and their hard work and how they’d improved me.
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