Top ten Premier League managers who have won f*** alll - Football365
1) Mauricio Pochettino
Like the fluctuating levels of FA Cup magic, the dominance or demise of Premier League clubs in Europe or the degree to which international football is broken, Mauricio Pochettino’s lack of honours has become one of the sport’s interminable debates, destined to be dredged up as a laborious topic at intermittent points throughout the season.
To have no opinion is to have the wrong opinion. One must either consider Pochettino’s empty trophy cabinet as a slur on the game itself and an example of his limitations as a coach, or merely a reflection of the silverware-starved teams he has managed. The middle ground – that he has exceeded expectations wherever he has gone without having anything tangible to show for it – is uninhabitable.
Would winning the FA Cup really augment his reputation? Should his time at Espanyol be largely overlooked because he failed to deliver an unthinkable Copa del Rey? Is his ability to shatter glass ceilings worth nothing because he doesn’t have an Argentinean league title to his name?
He took over a Tottenham team that had finished sixth, ten points behind fourth, in 2014. They have since come fifth, third, second and third, reaching one cup final, two semi-finals and a Champions League quarter-final under his tutelage. Yet the lack of an FA Cup is enough for some to scoff at his credentials.
When asked about Tottenham’s priorities for the upcoming season, with European glory still a distant but distinct possibility this campaign, Daniel Levy
captured the conundrum. Tottenham’s chairman said Pochettino “wants to win all four competitions”, but that the Premier League and Champions League “are the main competitions you’re judged on”.
It will forever remain that way. Tottenham had never finished above fourth in the Premier League and had enjoyed a single season in the Champions League in their entire history before his appointment, but they are now required to win one or the other for Pochettino to be given his due. That only ten managers have ever won more Premier League games is too often forgotten.