Ahead of the big match tonight, Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has given a message of support to his counterpart on the opposite touchline, Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho.
The Red Devils coach is feeling his seat warm up at Old Trafford, with bookmakers slashing odds on his sacking and talk that Zinedine Zidane could be his replacement relatively soon. Mourinho, who has won the media game as well as any manager over the years, is now lashing out at the press.
Pochettino has sympathy and empathy for a man he considers a close friend, and he also take competitiveness to the highest level.
“When you lose, you feel the responsibility,” Pochettino said. “I am the manager. I assume responsibility. Always my thoughts are, ‘You can do better’. Never is it enough. Even when you win, you can do better. That is the mentality.”
“To win, it is every day, it is here on the training ground in every single situation.”
Pochettino, who had been rumored to be a leading candidate for the post that Mourinho now occupies, added that the self-designated Special One has served as an inspiration to him and many others.
“For every single manager who is younger than him, he was an inspiration. For everyone. Of course. I took a lot of things from him. So many things. He is an unbelievable manager,” the Argentine continued.
“I am younger than him, of course. The circumstances that happen with me, that happen with other managers, they will happen, it is up and down. He is an inspirational manager for a manager like me.
“I have a very good relationship with “Mou” from when I was a manager of Espanyol and I have full respect for him and the club.”
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