Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino convinced fellow Argentine Facundo Sava into management, by revealing what Marcelo Bielsa had told him about his own managerial plans.
That’s according to Sava, who has revealed the conversation he had with the Chelsea manager when they worked together at Espanyol.
Pochettino began his own manager career in 2009 at Espanyol, leading the Spanish side for 161 games in total before leaving in November 2012.
He then moved to Southampton and impressed there before taking charge at Tottenham in 2014 for a highly successful four-year spell at the London club.
Since then, he’s manager Paris Saint Germain for a year and now Chelsea, who he joined in the summer as the long-term replacement for Graham Potter.
The Chelsea boss has had a varied career to date, one which only started three years after he had retired but was planned for long before that thanks to Bielsa.
That’s at least according to Sava, who started his own managerial journey in 2012 after some words of encouragement from Pochettino at Espanyol, who he says gave him the final push to make the move.
“With Pochettino when I was at Espanyol, he gave me the final push to start managing with professional players, because many people advised me to start with boys,” he told TNT.
“At first you are in charge and make mistakes, which with kids out there is something else.
“He told me an anecdote about how Bielsa called him and asked him if he wanted to coach because he had recommended two Argentinians and asked him ‘Would you dare?’, to which Poch replied that he had not finished the coaching course, to which Bielsa said ‘I had my children, I didn’t prepare myself and I was a good father. If I now prepare myself to be a coach, look, otherwise I’ll be good’.
“When I left the chat with him, I said that I would start with professionals, it didn’t matter if it was A team, B, C, D or whatever. You can see what you can do as a coach tactically, physically, logically.”
