Diego Forlan writes a weekly column for The National, appearing each Friday. The former Manchester United, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid striker has been the top scorer in Europe twice and won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup. Forlan’s column will be written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten.
As a striker playing for Atletico Madrid, I used to pop to see a friend who had an office close to the Bernabeu to have a coffee and chat about football. One day, Mauricio Pochettino came in. His agent was a close friend of my agent, and we had a lot of mutual friends from Spain and Argentina.
He lived in Barcelona where he was a player with Espanyol, but he had to come to Madrid to get his coaching diploma, which you need to manage a professional team in Spain, and so the coffees became quite regular. We got on well. We talked football: teams, tactics, travel and teammates.
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Pochettino, 44, is nine years older than me, but our careers overlapped and I had played against him. He was a hard, experienced and determined central defender, good enough to play 20 times for Argentina. He also played for Newells Old Boys in Argentina, Espanyol (two spells), Paris Saint-Germain and Bordeaux. He became manager of Espanyol, a club where he was a hero and a cup winner in 2000 and 2006.
When he became manager three years later I watched his team closely. They didn't have much money and had traditionally sold their best players even when they were still young, but he made them hard to beat, especially at home. They were playing in a brand new stadium and crowds were good, yet they were third from bottom when he took over at the end of 2009. They finished 10th. Pochettino stayed almost four years. That's a long time at Espanyol, who have had three managers since he left for Southampton just over three years ago.
Like many coaches Pochettino was influenced by Marcelo Bielsa. He had played under him for Argentina and seen a pure student of football, someone obsessed with the game to the point that people think he is a little crazy – but in a good way. Bielsa’s teams play great passing, attacking and pressing football. It won’t surprise you to learn Pep Guardiola was a fan, too. Bielsa thinks it is a team’s duty to entertain and there are many stories about him. When his Athletic Bilbao team was leading at Old Trafford in a 2012 Europa League match, he told them to continue attacking rather than consolidate their lead.
Pochettino could only go so far coaching at Espanyol, a club which was in debt and had to sell to survive. He left by mutual consent and it was a surprise when he joined Southampton, whose own fans didn’t want their previous manager Nigel Adkins to go.
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Pochettino settled quickly, beating the champions Manchester City within a few weeks of arriving. He spoke English in the dressing room, though not to the media where he used an interpreter to fully express his views. His Southampton team have been one of the success stories of English football in recent years and while he still had to sell his best players, such as Luke Shaw to Manchester United, he could also afford to buy better players, a luxury he had not had before. Southampton finished eighth in his only full season there.
It was no surprise when he started to get more attention and Tottenham Hotspur was a good move for him. He could buy better players at a bigger club, but he also went to another club who were serious about developing youth. That is what he had done at Espanyol, who had one of the best youth systems in Spain. They had to, they couldn't afford to buy players. But they could also draw talent from a big city like Barcelona. And it fitted in with what Bielsa did, moulding young players to how he wanted them.
Pochettino has done this at Tottenham. Not only do the team play attractive football but they also have the youngest side on average in the Premier League. He has shown faith in players such as Harry Kane and Dele Alli who have developed into some of England's best players.
They have had a great season and Spurs are second in the league table. I never remember Spurs being close to second place. They are likely to finish behind Leicester City but still above the previously established top four teams. That's success, even though it won't win Spurs a trophy.
So what does Pochettino do next? Does he carry on moving to bigger, wealthier clubs? Does he end up at Manchester United?
He is good where he is at the moment. He has an excellent squad, a new training ground and he doesn’t have to sell anyone. Spurs are building a new stadium holding 60,000. It’s an exciting time for the club and as we saw with their 3-0 win against United on Sunday just how good his team are.
The timing has been fortunate as nobody saw Chelsea, Manchester City, United and Arsenal all struggling this season. He is fortunate, too, that the Premier League is truly international with coaches from everywhere. When I played, most were still British. And he is fortunate because all the money being pumped into the league is levelling things out. If Leicester don't have to sell players then Tottenham certainly don't.
He is also living in London, a city desirable around the world. His persona is a cool one. He is smart and speaks well, but he is a football man at heart. Like his compatriot and former teammate Diego Simeone, they are among the best coaches in the world.
I can see why people say he is better staying off at Tottenham, but what if United did come in for him? United may have problems, but it's still Manchester United, the biggest club in the world. If they have problems then that's a challenge to a manager. They want to be the one to fix the problems, to restore greatness. It's incredibly tempting. And Pochettino's doing so well that he may even end up at Real Madrid, back opposite where we used to have coffee.
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