I think there's an argument that Pochettino was not nearly as effective in his last season or two at Tottenham, despite the Champions League run. He did okay at PSG but not great. Though I would argue that his performance at Chelsea was quite successful, and he only left after the season because he disagreed with some of the club's insane plans and policies. The United States would not be hiring Pochettino if everything had been perfectly rosy for him over the last few years.
I mean, we can argue about Poch's success for big clubs in Europe until the cows come home. OUR COACH WAS GREGG BERHALTER. Alright? This is about as good of a hire as we could have hoped for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [This is a huge win. Will we get further in the World Cup than Berhalter did? Maybe not. Depends on a lot of factors.] This ambition is great, and hopefully helps with the program all thru the senior and youth levels. High level assistants, etc. brought in. Maybe higher level youth coaches, etc. etc. Just a higher level of expertise across the board.
Latino is the term the Latin American community has used to refer to ourselves. He is a Latino regardless of last name. There is some division in the community on whether Spaniards come under that term.
They were also fourth in the league that year (his last full season). In the five full seasons since they’ve only finished in the top four one time. And in the 20 years prior to his arrival they had finished in the top four twice. So even a top four finish the 2019 season is very much not an underachievement for Tottenham. Tournament football also always has a bit of a randomness factor but there’s no world where getting a club like Tottenham to the final isn’t a massive achievement.
To me his final full season for Tottenham they still finished in the top 4 which is pretty impressive as far as the recent history of Tottenham is concerned. His last partial season didn’t go great but he was also somewhat victim to his own success. PSG wasn’t great but it was roughly in line with the coaches who have come before and after (which includes Ancelotti, Tuchel, and Luis Enrique). And that team had a lot of stars but wasn’t smartly built.
This is a very significant hire. Color me surprised. Nice work Crocker. I can't wait to see what a Poch-led USMNT looks like.
Are we forgetting how cheap Daniel Levy and Tottenham have been over the years? They've basically been the St. Louis Cardinals of European soccer, foregoing significant investment in the team to focus on their stadium and commercial district. It wasn't exactly like Pochettino was battling the rest of the top teams in England and Europe with similar player budgets. He has some experience with having to take a team that may not have had the talent of other teams and getting them to punch above their weight. That's pretty important for the USMNT.
I think the other thing about Pochettino is he’s very good at bringing through young players. That Tottenham run was very much driven by guys he brought through the academy like Harry Kane. It’s been fairly consistent wherever he’s gone minus at PSG.
Very much what he and Crocker did together at Southampton. The mission is a little different with international teams. A guy like Pochettino can't work with a young player day-to-day to help him improve. These are short windows. But at least he's not been afraid to give young players a chance. To be fair, neither was Berhalter. Gregg had the 2nd youngest team at WC22.
That’s just spin in my opinion. Bayern Munich hired Vincent Kompany! ETH is preferred to him? Howe has no reason to be that secure. If he were thought of as Klopp is, there’s no way he’s without job prospects and tying himself for 2 years with a job like this is a strange move.
From a playing style perspective, I always thought he did a lot of good things with Son and was a big part of his development into a star. Since Son plays that same left wing role that Pulisic plays for the US, I'm really intrigued to see how that relationship progresses. Is Pulisic at the level of Son? Probably not, but I do think he can thrive in a similar type of role as Son played at Tottenham under Pochettino.
Obviously, there will always be people who quibble whoever we hire, and everyone has their own personal favorites, Poch wouldn't necessarily be mine but this is about as good as could be reasonably expected and probably even better. He's an experienced, well-respected coach, has done well working with young players, has shown some flexibility over time. Not sure what else you could really ask for outside getting Klopp or Pep or someone else who wouldn't take the job. US Soccer has done all they can as far as coaching goes, now it's up to the players to perform. Looking forward to seeing what he does with this team.
I think Poch is a solid selection. But I caution against thinking he is the solution. Truth be told our player pool is not as good as it needs to be. Still I'm happy that we got such a well respected coach.
Bayern is seen a bit like a poisoned chalice after recklessly firing Nagelsmann and then quickly doing the same with Tuchel. Kompany was something like an 8th choice hire. IMO, Manchester United fear a revolving door at manager.
We can't know for sure, but it sure seems that way now. It's in the subtext of his statement, which read very much as someone who can't say he turned down a job but doesn't want to look like he himself was turned down (or slowwalked, effectively the same here).
My big hope is we can stop talking obsessively about how much the coach is crap and start focusing more on the players. I didn't think Berhalter was a great coach, but I sure got sick of having every conversation devolve into making that same statement over and over, louder and louder. If this team still doesn't do the job with a new top-quality coach, maybe more people will accept that the limitations on this team are as much down to the player pool as the organization behind them.
I'm cautiously optimistic and also excited. It certainly will be perceived as a coup, the US hiring above their station. I don't know how he'll make the transition to NT nor if his expression of philosophical/spiritual beliefs has been alienating folks at recent jobs. But his track record is good enough in challenging circumstances that I'm eager to find out.
Interesting tangent: Seems likely though not certain that, given a straight-up choice, Poch would have opted for England. Does this mean England's all-in on waiting a year and pursuing Pep? Do they have someone else close to an announcement? Or was Pochettino getting tired of the slowwalk? I wonder if us "stealing" Emma Hayes from England (in scare quotes because their job wasn't vacant) by letting her delegate the job for 9 months will be an inspiration for their pursuit of Pep.
To counter this, it's a two-year gig. Poch is 52. He'll still have 10-15 years of top-level club management if he wants it, and doing well with the US will be a big plus on his resume. Fair points about some of these other clubs, but I'll push back on Man United and Bayern. I'm guessing Bayern wanted a German speaker as their manager. Kompany is, but I'm not sure about Pochettino (I'm guessing not). For whatever reason, Manchester United seems like their first choice is going to be southgate if Ten Hag is let go.
True - just saying if he were Klopp none of these other coaches would stand a chance. And why is the choice only top teams? Xabi Alonso did ok at BL. Anyway - I’ll try to stop since the vast majority here are excited by this move. It’s weird to me seeing Berhalter defenders get so excited and say things like European Champions League final! when despite Levy being a tight wad, he had some pretty good players. Why spend so much time defending Berhalter for the limits of coaching only to assign pixie dust to Poch? Let’s have some balance. The dude is rich man’s Marsch (good man manager, slow to make changes in game, no plan B) whose best days may be behind him but I’m hopeful it works out great. I will say I was wrong thinking a coach like him would take the job. I personally would rather we have a coach that doesn’t take an outsized amount of credit for us doing well - but if he brings good things to the program like Hayes did - I’ll be the thrilled. It’s ironic that I’ve hated all the Berhalter bashing as moderator and here’s a coach that will be above that bashing for a while - as moderator it’s awesome but as someone not excited about the hire, it kinda sucks. Sure hope to be dead wrong.
I’m and if he were thought of as Klopp, he’d have way better options than the usmnt. Any hire we made was going to have some flaws. That was inevitable. But Poch had a very nice run at Tottenham, wasn’t awful at PSG, and imo did about as well as one could expect at Chelsea, given the circumstances. We aren’t talking about him doing well enough at Hoffenheim or Leeds. Those are some huge clubs. I don’t think he’s one of the tip top managers in the club game, but I also think Chelsea were dumb to fire him, and United are dumb to apparently prefer Southgate over him. I have no idea if Pochettino will succeed or not, but I don’t feel at all that he’s just a big name who is past his prime or something.
Howe has done a very good job at Newcastle and is pretty secure. They’ve also worked very hard to reassure him to make sure he doesn’t take the England job. By any account Kompany is an odd hire for Bayern and they got turned down by a few coaches prior to that. But I do think he’s going to get a real shot and they aren’t going to knee jerk fire him any time soon. I also don’t believe Pochettino had been fired by Chelsea when Kompany had been hired (though I can’t fully remember the timing). Ten Hag has the shortest leash and the main reason I think he didn’t get fired is they were waiting for the sporting team to get into place (which they weren’t this summer). Since hiring a coach is one of the bigger decisions the new regime would have to make. But Pochettino has finished second for the Man U job a few times now so he may feel burned by them.