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Poch takes credit for Koemans work this season


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http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/mauricio-pochettino-made-southampton-winning-5110028?

 

The Saints are in contention for a top four spot but Pochettino insists it was he who turned things around, despite the summer exodus

 

Ronald Koeman, manager of Southampton greets Mauricio Pochettino, manager of SpursRonald Koeman, manager of Southampton greets Mauricio Pochettino, manager of Spurs

Mauricio Pochettino has remarkably claimed credit for Ronald Koeman's success at Southampton this season - even though half the team were sold last summer.

 

The 42-year-old Argentine has claimed Koeman already had "a winning team" when he took over last June. The claim is set to spice up Pochettino's return to St Mary's when Southampton host Tottenham on April 25.

 

Pochettino, now impressing at White Hart Lane, told Catalan radio station RAC1: "It is always easier taking over a winning team which is the case this time with Ronald [Koeman]."

 

Pochettino did indeed do magnificently to lead the south coast club to eighth in the Premier League. But by the time he defected to Spurs at the end of the campaign Southampton had already agreed to sell Rickie Lambert to Liverpool. Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana and Calum Chambers also followed him out of the exit door.

 

Koeman, who famously tweeted an empty pitch to indicate the desperate need for replacements, drafted in the likes of Graziano Pelle, Dusan Tadic, Fraser Forster and Toby Alderweireld.

 

But, with the club widely expected to struggle, the Saints have defied the odds spectacularly to maintain their position in the top four with the best defence in the Premier League.

 

They have also beaten Arsenal and Manchester United and taken points off Chelsea to keep alive their hopes of a shock Champions League place next season.

 

Pochettino said, however: "You have to say that they invested close to €80million in the summer and it was already a winning team on the up. When we arrived at Southampton in January of 2013 they had the team that had conceded the most goals in the league.

 

"It was a team with a lot of problems, with players like Adam Lallana who wasn’t playing and Luke Shaw who wasn’t playing but in one and a half years we turned it round.

 

PASouthampton's Rickie Lambert celebrates scoring his side's second goal with manager Mauricio PochettinoSaint: Pochettino and Lambert were among the summer departures

"We brought a lot of young players through and finished eighth. It is always easier taking over a winning team which is the case this time with Ronald [Koeman].

 

"We came here and had to reinvent things. We always laugh about it because we left a team at Southampton that practically trained itself after a year and a half to come here where we had to recreate everything that we had done at Southampton, pretty much from zero, but it’s a great challenge."

 

Tottenham take on Arsenal this weekend having lost just two of their last 14 matches in all competitions to home in on the top four themselves. But Pochettino insisted the Champions League is still a tall order for the north Londoners.

 

He said: "We are ambitious and we want to be in the Champions League but when you look at the other teams: Chelsea, City, Arsenal, Liverpool, United you realise that it is anything but easy.

 

Southampton manager win percentage

Pochettino

38.33%

Koeman

60.71%

 

"They are powerful clubs and you have United with the monstrous amount of money they spent last summer. We are going to try to compete against them because we are winners and everything is possible in football but the financial reality is that we are a long way from them."

 

Pochettino has also risked upsetting Jose Mourinho by claiming his Chelsea team are not as talented as Manuel Pellegrini's Manchester City.

 

Asked about City's upcoming Champions League clash against Barcelona, Pochettino said: "‘City are the most talented team in England but they are also inconsistent.

 

"You could say that Chelsea are more solid with less talent. City are always dangerous though and the game against Barcelona will be good to watch. Barcelona are not at the level they were under Guardiola so it’s 50/50"

 

Yes he did very well here, but he's talking like we'd never won before he arrived. We've had a winning mentality at the club for about 6 years now.

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/mauricio-pochettino-made-southampton-winning-5110028?

 

 

 

Yes he did very well here, but he's talking like we'd never won before he arrived. We've had a winning mentality at the club for about 6 years now.

 

Aye. Also, that Koeman photo was clearly not a reference to needing to get players in - as he has himself already clarified - that actually is lazy journalism.

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Didnt realise that Lallana and Shaw "weren't playing" until Poch arrived. I thought Lallana has been a mainstay of the team for the past five years and Shaw had been introduced by Adkins and displaced Fox, but i might be wrong.

 

No doubt he did instill a winning mentality in the side and really turned us round when he came, you can't deny that, but given the departures in the summer especially, it's bizarre comments really to belittle what Koeman has done.

 

Hopefully we turn them over when they come to SMS - i wonder if he'll take credit for beating himself...?

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As said in an interview with a Catalan radio station. Perhaps he's got his eyes on the prize, his next move, the Big One. Building popular support from a public, most of which knows nothing of Saints and Tottenham and wont recognise his revisionist nonsense. On the other hand, maybe he's just ****.

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Talk about delusion!

 

What happened to the humble, yet intelligent, and astute, MoPo we knew ?

 

I'm left thinking that the interpreter we used was the true superstar, and probably deserves a statue next to Ted.

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I never liked him, thought he was an arrogant pr*ck and time has proven me right. He was and is a good manager so respected him for that and also when he's on of your own he's your pr*ck. However what put me off him was when he started spouting all this nonsense about not imagining a club without Cortese and if Cortese went he went etc. Knew then he had no interest in the club. Also strong rumours he was stirring things up behind the scenes with the players and telling them to leave. We are best off without him, did a good job when he was here but i'd have Koeman over him any day.

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What the **** is he on!!!. He in fact inherited a very good team from Nigel Adkins. He might have got them working a bit harder but that is it. The only players he introduced were a violent head case and Lovren. Where are they now? (+ Wanyama?) I hope if this article gets national coverage that somehow our response can be given equal coverage. He must not get away with his lies.

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Whoa Mauricio !.......let's back-track a little.

Firstly, your predecessor ..that Adkins guy....put together a team that you more of less played out the first season with.

Maybe you didn't notice, but he didn't go around bragging so much about a team he took out of L1 and was forced to give over to you - the manner of which still upsets some of our fan base.

 

YES ! ....you put them all through double training and they upped the tempo and it made exciting watching, except that all that intensive training meant the team " peaked " a bit too soon and although we survived relegation, the back-end of that season was rather tame.

 

Don't know if Victor Wanyama was your choice, (or Les' / Black Box 's ) but that was a good buy.

However, you really surpassed yourself when you signed that Osvaldo fellow .....and for such a long contract, and at such a high salary, too. He goes down in our folk history amongst those candidates for the Ali Dia Player of the Half Season award. ( btw - Do you need another striker at Spuds? )

 

Perhaps Osvaldo should have been a boxer, certainly looks like it ....after putting one on Fonte, (who btw..is the captain of THIS season's successful team). We're the team a few places above you in the League:lol:

Incidentally ..Where were you ...when that punch landed? ..and what did you say / do? However, we do owe you some praise..(even though you used most of Nigel Adkins' squad) for finishing in 8th place.

 

BUT .....tell me how this season's success is due to your input?..especially as so many of those players' who were so loyal to YOU ...that 6 of the them don't even play for the club anymore ? ...

...(if you take a glance around at some of the other Prem.sides you may recognise them again). And at least 8 of out present (new) squad don't even know who you are...

 

QUITE FRANKLY, Mauricio...any respect I still held for you before has rapidly diminished after I read that item. If you were " misquoted " own up and say so NOW...or isn't your English good enough yet?

Edited by david in sweden
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It does sound like he's trying to polish his image in Spain because he can't believe that crock. He's probably realised the best he is ever going to do at Spurs is 6th or thereabouts and is thinking about his next move.

 

This was my first thought too, preparing the ground for sunny climes when the inevitable Levy bullet comes. As a player (in the same position) not fit to polish Koeman's boots, ditto as a manager, and a pitiful disgrace as a man!

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As said in an interview with a Catalan radio station. Perhaps he's got his eyes on the prize, his next move, the Big One. Building popular support from a public, most of which knows nothing of Saints and Tottenham and wont recognise his revisionist nonsense. On the other hand, maybe he's just ****.

I think that this is probably the right background to this. He might believe that there is little chance of his remarks being given air-time in England, so he is bigging himself up as a candidate for a future job with Barca. Otherwise, if he thought that his remarks would be widely reported here, then he would have to be bloody naive to believe that he could away with spouting such crap.

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I expect there will be claims from Poch that it's all been a big misunderstanding, the usual "lost in translation" explanation, and that he would never be so disrespectful towards Koeman. Oh and the obligatory "I'm pleased Southampton are doing well" line.

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Some ridiculous statements. He was a good manager but not great. Last season we had about the 8th best squad in the league, so it was hardly a great achievement. I wasn't bothered at all when he left, although many on here were. He had been engineering a move to Spurs since March. Only in it for himself. How's his win percentage looking these days?

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A pretty cûntîsh thing to say as all success is collective on one level.

 

Still it is arguable that the influx of transfer fees that enabled our rebuild can be attributed to MP's reign. Lallana, Chambers, Shaw and Lovren all saw their value rise in less than 18 months - sometimes by staggering multiples. How much would have somebody here valued Lallana in Jan/Feb 2013, bearing in mind the stick he was getting?

 

Needless to say, profits generated in the transfer market need to be reinvested and gelled seamlessly. That, more anything, has been the backbone of our success and has nothing to do with Poch. If anyone trivialises this feat, just look at his very ow Spurs who are a textbook example of how to pîss money up the wall on mediocrity.

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