Working as a pundit on the BBC‘s coverage of the Qatar World Cup, it was only a matter of time before Mauricio Pochettino was asked about his next career move.
The Argentine had been sacked by Paris Saint-Germain less than six months earlier and told Gary Lineker he wasn’t going to rush into simply accepting the next job that came up.
‘Soccer is timing. These are the moments for it to coincide and for that marriage to happen. Sometimes it’s just a matter of time,’ Pochettino said.
‘I don’t believe in trains passing only once. I think that sometimes you have to have the necessary patience and you have to know how to wait.’
Well, Pochettino has waited but now the train is approaching its destination. It’s a largely familiar place – London and the English Premier League – but the club and the challenge is very different.
Mauricio Pochettino spoke openly about his next career move when a pundit on the BBC’s coverage of the World Cup late last year – he is pictured in the studio (second right) with Gary Lineker (left), Rio Ferdinand (second left), Alan Shearer (back) and Jurgen Klinsmann (right)
Chelsea are closing in on the appointment of Pochettino as their next manager as the Argentine gets the return to the Premier League he was so keen on
It will upset many Tottenham fans, even more so given their current crisis, but Pochettino is poised to be the next manager of Chelsea.
Pochettino is a believer in ‘universal energy’, that everything happens for a reason, and after front-runner Julian Nagelsmann turned down the Stamford Bridge hot-seat, here he is tasked with rebuilding Chelsea into a title-challenging force.
It was in November 2019, just five months after guiding Spurs to the Champions League final, that Pochettino was sacked following a disappointing start to the campaign.
PSG has been his only management job in the interim but he has been linked with others, notably the Manchester United post that at one point also seemed like ‘a matter of time.’
Pochettino has maintained his profile through TV work and has also seen a bit of the world, but now the Premier League will welcome him back at the beginning of next season.
His time with Spurs ended in a bruising fashion, with the hangover from losing the Champions League final to Liverpool lasting into the following season.
They were 14th in the Premier League, out of the Carabao Cup and had been thrashed 7-2 at home by Bayern Munich in the Champions League when Daniel Levy drew a line under the most…