Pochettino: “It's a dream to be able to train Madrid one day”

Fully recovered from the attack of the damn covid, Mauricio Roberto Pochettino Trossero (Murphy, Santa FE, Argentina, 48 years old) sits before the computer camera with a smile that reveals his state of mind. He's a happy guy. Just a month ago his hard work over the last dozen years was recognized and he arrived at Paris Saint Germain, one of the privileged European clubs that is part of the squad of the true candidates to win the Champions League.

Last year PSG reached the final. Like ‘Poche” himself two years ago with Totteham in the Metropolitan. Now their paths have joined for the ultimate assault. Meanwhile, he has just won the French Super Cup and leads Ligue 1 with a firm step. The interview that falls before his eyes today has had its cooking time. Three months. And not because the interlocutor refused to do it, but the moment had to be found. The values ​​that Pochettino protects with central defense zeal made him reluctant to grant it when he did not have a team. “I do not want anyone to think that I speak because I do not have equipment and may be offering me.”

Everything was to sign for PSG and set the date. He no longer hurt responsibilities.

-The important thing is that we are doing the interview. I have a lot of respect for my work, for the colleagues at the clubs who give us the opportunity to work and express what we feel. Soccer is a way of expressing what we feel. Emotions, feelings. I'm maybe old-fashioned.

-You were unemployed for a year. How does a coach work without a bench to sit on?

– We are a very active coaching staff, with daily concerns. We have done a lot of work on our own analysis. Self-criticism that every coaching staff needs at the individual and collective level. We were fortunate to stop at a very critical moment in life in general and in football in particular. New technologies allowed us to work to keep abreast of everything that moves around. We lacked time to do everything we wanted to have, but I also think it was time to go back to work.

– The good thing about that situation was every morning he got up in a different club. One day they placed him at Real Madrid, another at Manchester United… At PSG.

– That's why I didn't need to have that media visibility. I had it without wanting to. He was a bit lucky. They linked my name to different clubs. The exhibition came spontaneously. He was traveling virtually from one club to another. Surely when you talk you have some basis, but for it to be done for real, as with PSG, ties have to be closed.

-To a club like PSG, you can't say no … Or can you say no?

-It depends. It was important how the club approached me. Besides, he already had a past here as a footballer. All the conditions were met to say yes. For us it is a tremendous joy to be in one of the best clubs in the world.

-Now Mauricio, these are big words. It is not saving Espanyol, it is not landing in the Premier at Southampton, it is not revitalizing a sleeping club like Tottenham… Now they have signed him to win the Champions League. It has no network.

-We know. Experience allows us to take this step. Experience is important as long as you know how to capitalize on it. All this process is essential to lead a project like this. There are no networks here. Here you have to win and you have to win the European Cup. If it is not possible in four months, do it in 10. This type of project requires you to win as the main objective, but you can also create strategies for a solid project that gives the club a structure. Winning and creating a solid structure is not incompatible. It's about winning titles and playing football well.

-After a lost Champions League final, a lost Capital One final, a second place in the Premier… it took 12 years and 517 games to win his first title.

-We did things in these years that were much more important than winning titles. Arriving and winning a title is always important. But it's not the most important. I have won three Catalan Cups with Espanyol. If one day Catalonia is independent, it will have a lot of value because we beat them to Barcelona and in a row. Not just any team. That is going to have enormous value … I even told Neymar, Rafinha and they told me they had value because we had beaten Barcelona.

-He has been with his new team for more than 15 days. Mbappé is as good from close up as he seems from afar in matches. It is so ‘machine’, what would Xavi say?

– Today I spoke with a partner about Kylian humanly and they told me who is not going to love Kylian? As a boy, as a person. It is adorable, with a smile, an energy that wins you over. He's a boy who won the World Cup with France as a starter at the age of 19… What else can I say about a player like him? It has enormous potential. An incredible talent. I hope you are with us as long as possible.

– And has Neymar already thrown a ‘pipe’ or a ‘hat’ at you in training?

-No. If he throws it at me, I'll kick him. He is a great footballer. One of the great world talents. We have a good relationship from the first moment. The 'feeling' is good with the group.

-In one of your two books I have read that in your teams you want wolves, people with hunger and ambition … In a club so sophisticated and with so many stars you can find that type of player.

-Yes. I asked that question at Tottenham when I arrived. I told you what we are here, wolves or dogs? Some got confused. They received the question out of nowhere and said they were dogs because they were faithful, loyal … And of course they were also domesticated and what I want are wolves that are not domesticated. They go and hunt alone. In my players I want that survival instinct of aggressiveness and then everyone started wanting to be wolves. The footballer has to let himself be trained, have the commitment to belong to a group, but at the same time he can never lose that animal instinct that makes you a killer. That you want to win above all else. On the field the player has to follow his instincts and his talent. And that is part of the responsibility of the coaches. We like to have control of the team, that they are mechanical. I think that order is important in the defensive phase, but in the offensive phase the player must always feel that he can use his instinct and his talent to surprise the opponent. That is why wolves are needed, not dogs. When they have the ball, those who rule are the footballers. In the last three quarters of the field they can do whatever they want. They have freedom for everything that occurs to them. I will never reproach a player for what he does in the last third of the field.

-Did you know that the day you were appointed Espanyol coach, January 20, 2009, was the day Barack Obama entered the White House?

-Yes, I knew it. “Yes we can.” It was the motto we used to save the team.

-And your first game as a professional on a bench was against Barcelona … and now your first big game, in the Champions League, will be against Barcelona.

-Yes, two training sessions and to play against Barça in the Cup (0-0)… And now the first good-good was the final of the Super Cup against OM. Here is a great rivalry with them. If you win it, nothing happens, but if you lose it you are in big trouble…. Of course, the game against Barcelona is a day marked for PSG, for the fans, for the players. Having been so close last year to having won it makes the illusion even greater. Seeing her so close, as it happened to us with Tottenham, makes the fierceness of having another chance be there.

– Two weeks before the game against Barcelona, ​​is there something I don't know about Koeman's team? They have returned to 1-4-3-3 of a lifetime.

-As much as you can analyze from the outside, you are never inside. The same thing that happens to them with us. Who better than Ronald to know the essence of Barcelona. He is a club legend. Sometimes circumstances demand a type of solutions when competing. Every coach needs time to find what he wants and for the pieces to come together tactically. Upon arrival, you make decisions and discover what are the best combinations for the team to function as you want.

– As a Newell’s leper, how can he say something about Messi that has never been said before.

– There's nothing left to say. I respect and admire him so much that I prefer never to say anything, or refer to him. It is the best tribute you can do to someone. We share the two of us who have put on the Newell’s jersey and that is something very big. That bond unites us. That he is one of the best players of all time I will not discover and when we meet we will fight for our interests.

– And how central defense, what would have been done to stop him that has not been done until now?

– The only thing I could do is give him a kick if I could catch him, as I will have done with some. But it would have been difficult for me to stop it. It is so fast and intuitive that it both eliminates opponents and dodges kicks. Carles Puyol said that even in training it was impossible to get the ball out of him, impossible to stop it. It has an unbalanced capacity, which allows it to be unique.

-Di Stéfano told me one day that the only way to mark Messi is with chalk.

-It is true. You cross him on the back or on his chest to mark him … but you won't be able to stop him and get the ball out of him.

– You have never in your life been so close to being able to train him. He is at PSG, he ends his contract and Leonardo, his sports director, would sit him at his table.

– There is a lot of talk. These are the strategies of all clubs to improve teams. In the end we will see what happens. My responsibility is to have respect for the players who play for other teams and to keep that distance. In football not everything goes, but all clubs work to get the best players to be closer to victory.

– But if you ask him if he loves Messi, he would say yes. It's impossible to say no…

-Sometimes words are unnecessary. With the question you ask me, everything is understood. What coach in the world would not want to have a player of the caliber of which you are telling me? I totally understand the question, but it is looking for a controversy. It is a dangerous question if a word of mine is taken out of context … Pochettino will come disrespectfully, Pochettino talks about this, Pochettino talks about the other.

– Man to you precisely I do not think anyone can accuse you of disrespect. Being true to his values, he said no to Real Madrid himself in June 2018 because he had a signed contract with Totthenham.

-That depends on how each one sees it. You cannot judge anyone. In life you are to make the decisions that make you happy with respect for others. You have to act accordingly of what your values ​​are.

-But that offer from Real Madrid that did not have a coach at the time was like having had a moment of weakness …

-I'm sure I have weaknesses. Loyalty, honesty are qualities that in life have to be ahead of many other things. Things have to come when they have to. And they will come to you naturally, you cannot force them. Sometimes you have bad consequences for making decisions that do not enter your reason and go against what you feel. When I give my word, it is more than a signature. And at that time I had given Levy (Tottenham) my word to continue until the stadium was completed and the project they had come looking for me for five years ago. There was a relationship of respect and gratitude because he signed me from Southampton. He had always complied with me and it was more that I had not complied with him. I behaved as any person would have behaved. I was loyal and honest with my speech.

-But as follows and faithfully believes in the words of his mentor Griffa. “Let yourself go, football will take you where he wants.” He is sure that football will one day take him to the Bernabéu, although he would like to be taken to the Metropolitan.

-It was not just their words, it was their values ​​that have marked a generation.

-For how reserved and respectful he is in his opinions, I am surprised that one day he said that he would like to train Real Madrid and the Argentine team. Why say it said it, no?

-Yes. I had the opportunity as a player to have signed for Madrid and it didn't happen for whatever reason. And also because when I arrived at Espanyol in 1994, with Camacho, he always spoke to me about the culture, the mentality, what it meant to be part of a family like Real Madrid. It stuck in my head. Also later with Alfredo di Stéfano. Griffa threw more for Atlético. The more mature I was getting, the more Camacho's influence reached me. He represents the values ​​of Madrid, how the club loves… It was always a goal to be able to play for Real Madrid and when you can't fulfill that dream. One says, well, look, one day to be able to train Real Madrid, after Espanyol. And why not also one day to the Argentine team, because one is born with the Argentine flag placed on your body. They are those two things that football will say if they can be fulfilled.