Spanish outlet Marca features today an interview with Paris Saint Germain’s new manager Mauricio Pochettino, and Tottenham Hotspur inevitably came into the conversation.
The coach, who’s been in charge of the French side for five games now, had a lot to say about the path he’s gone down in recent years and the big opportunity he has in Paris.
Appointed in the first days of the year, the Argentine boss was asked if winning the Champions League was clearly one of PSG’s obsessions. And he claims it’s a personal goal as well, recalling how far he got with Tottenham.
“There is no use here other than winning. Winning the Champions League has been an illusion for 50 years, we’ve never won it, and when I was a player it was an obsession,” Mauricio Pochettino told Marca.
“That is the objective, we cannot think of playing a good role in the Champions League, here we’re talking about winning it. For that, we have to build and have a structure that supports and improves sports. Since we lost the final with Tottenham, our dream is to have the possibility of playing in a final again.”
During his time at Spurs, there were several rumours which linked him to the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Now asked if it’s true he turned down the two Spanish giants, he claims things didn’t happen the way they were reported.
“It’s not like that, although at the time there was a lot of talk. We greatly respect the teams that have been interested in our staff. It wasn’t like that and of course I’ve had contact with clubs, but from whom we received the offer and the affection, it was PSG. And this is the ideal project.”
Regarding how hard the life of a football manager is, he recalled his exit from Tottenham, claiming he’s been a ‘victim of his own success’ at the Premier League side.
“Football is now and today, the results have to be immediate. It’s difficult to find projects in the medium long term. This is to win the Champions League. It’s very difficult to sustain because we only look at today and we’re immersed in a whirlpool. Here we have a year and a half of contract, at Tottenham it was five, but that doesn’t mean that you will be more or less long. Sometimes you can even be a victim of your own success, as we were at Tottenham when we exceeded expectations.”
