Sometimes in football, a manager doesn’t fancy a player. There’s usually a reason for this, but often, it can just be a manager’s instinct.
For whatever reason, the manager doesn’t trust the player, and it usually ends in the player moving on to another club.
That was precisely what happened with Nacer Chadli and Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur.
Chadli had arrived at Spurs a year before Pochettino, part of the vast summer splurge designed to try and replace the departed Gareth Bale.
However, by the end of the season he’d featured under two managers and a third one, Pochettino, was inbound.
The Argentine’s arrival at the club signified a change in style and operation by Tottenham and unfortunately for Chadli, that eventually saw him on the outside.
That summer, 2016, he was shipped off to West Bromwich Albion and reflecting on the move, the Belgian says it was done because he knew he didn’t have Pochettino’s confidence.
“I had great years with Tottenham,” he told HLN.
“Unfortunately I never got the full confidence of the coach.
“That’s why I thought it better to go to West Brom, where I was very happy until my injuries in my second year. I made a lot of progress there.”
