Five Reasons Why Pochettino Has Been Such a Success at Tottenham

Whilst it’s now looking unlikely that they will win the title, Tottenham Hotspur have unquestionably enjoyed their most successful Premier League campaign ever in 2016/17. Their points tally of 77 is already a club record in the Premier League era, with three games still to play, and represents the third successive season of definitive progress made under manager Mauricio Pochettino. Why then, has the Argentinian been such a success at White Hart Lane?

He’s Got Spurs Fighting Fit

Ask any football pundit the secrets of Pochettino’s success at Spurs and one of the first things that they are bound to mention is fitness. The Argentine manager is renowned for demanding tireless work on the training ground, in order to ensure that his players are fit enough to maintain a high energy style on the pitch throughout each match.

The results of this improved fitness at Spurs have been marked, too, with the side excelling in scoring and not conceding late goals throughout Pochettino’s tenure. This season alone, in fact, Tottenham have scored a total of 17 Premier League goals in the last 15 minutes of matches and let in just four.

He’s Changed the Club’s Focus

With four games still to be played in the Premier League this season, Spurs achieved a feat they hadn’t managed for over two decades. They ensured that they would finish above local rivals Arsenal, which was something fans had yearned for each and every season since it was last achieved in 1994/95.

This campaign, however, the avoidance of “St Totteringham’s Day” – the name given by Arsenal fans to the day their side guaranteed a higher finish than Spurs – was hardly spoken about until after it had already been achieved. Pochettino, after all, had got his players and the Spurs fans dreaming much bigger this time around.

As he said himself after the North London derby win that assured Spurs wouldn’t be overhauled by their old enemy; ‘To be above Arsenal for the first time in 22 years is fantastic…but we want to win the title.’

He’s Trusted English Players

Perhaps the idea that English players understand football in this country better than foreign imports is a little outdated. It’s hard to argue, however, that the high proportion of English players in the Spurs first team under Pochettino isn’t something to be admired.

Where many foreign managers might look abroad for marquee signings to help put their stamp on a club, Pochettino has kept Tottenham’s core very much English. Players like Harry Kane, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose are now long-standing staples of the Spurs first team and have excelled under the Argentine manager’s oversight. What’s more, unquestionably Spurs best signing of recent years is one Dele Alli, who came all the way from the exotic climes of Milton Keynes.

He’s Inspired a Real Togetherness at the Lane

Aside from fitness and focus, there’s something that little bit extra that seems to set the current Spurs side apart from those teams which stepped out at White Hart Lane under previous managers. You need only watch players’ reactions when their teammates score in order to identify that extra something as a feeling of real togetherness.

Pochettino has, it seems, truly united the Spurs dressing room and produced a feeling of unity that extends through the players, staff and the fans. When asked directly about the idea of team togetherness, in fact, goalkeeper and club captain Hugo Lloris explained that ‘that’s our philosophy, our spirit that we try to keep inside the changing room.’

He’s Been Savvy in the Transfer Market

In an era when clubs spend exorbitant amounts of money to bring desired players into the fold, Spurs can boast some really impressive financial stats over the past two seasons. In a time when the club has won more points than any other side in the Premier League, their net transfer spend has reached just £7 million. To put that into context, in the same period Manchester City have spent a net £270 million and seen far less return in terms of Premier League points.

Spurs’ business, too, has still seen some very important players join the team and contribute greatly to their current success. It is during the past two seasons, after all, that the likes of Toby Alderweireld, Son Heung-Min and Victor Wanyama have all arrived in North London. All of that, therefore, makes for some sensationally savvy transfer dealings which have been overseen – if not entirely orchestrated – by Pochettino.