A GREAT FOOTBALL MANAGER: POCHETTINO OR GUARDIOLA?
- Peter Radan
- Dec 5, 2019
- 3 min read
Peter Radan (5 December 2019)
Following Mauricio Pochettino's recent sacking as manager of Tottenham Hotspur, there was immediate speculation about what his next managerial position would be. This led, almost inevitably, to assessments of how good a manager he is. Pundits are universal in their admiration of Pochettino as an excellent coach, but that did not stop some of them, saying: "Yes, but has he won anything?" The implication here is that Pochettino cannot be considered as one of the great managers until he wins some big-time trophies.
To which I say: "Balderdash!" Judging the greatness of a football manager by the number of trophies won is as much a nonsense as claiming that Lionel Messi can never be judged the greatest player of all time, simply because he has not led Argentina to a World Cup Victory, or claiming that Pep Guardiola is a great manager because of the number of trophies he has won.
The true measure of a football manager's greatness is whether they make their team better than they were before becoming the manager.[1] On this 'made the team better' measure, is Pochettino a great manager and how does he stack up against, say, Pep Guardiola?
Pochettino as Manager
Pochettino's first managerial assignment was with Espanyol in La Liga. He took over January 2009 when Espanyol was staring at relegation and took them to safety with a mid-table finish, including a memorable victory over Barcelona. This 2-1 victory ended a 27 year wait for an away victory over their fierce Catalan rivals, then coached by the soon-to-be-anointed- great, Pep Guardiola.
In January 2013 Pochettino began his 18 month stay as manager of perennial Premier League relegation candidates, Southampton. In his only full season with them in 2013-2014, he led them to an eighth-place finish, their highest since 1992-1993.
At the end of the 2014 season Pochettino began his 5 seasons with Tottenham Hotspur, at that time little more than a regular mid-table side. In his five seasons with the club, Spurs finished 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Oh, and they made the European Champions League Final in 2018-2019.
It is pretty clear that in all three of his managerial roles, Pochettino has, by a good margin, left the club a better team than when he started.
Guardiola as Manager
Guardiola's greatness was anointed by pundits as a great on the basis of the phenomenal collection of trophies accumulated during his three years as Barcelona's manager starting in 2008. There he had the privilege of coaching arguably the greatest collection of football talent ever assembled in one club team - Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Carles Puyol, Thiago, and Gerard Pique, to name but a few. Guardiola can be credited with having this team play the beautiful game beautifully, but not the mantle of greatness.
Guardiola's next job was his three seasons with Bayern Munich starting in 2013. There he took over a team that dominated the Bundesliga and that had won the elusive treble - the League title, the domestic cup competition, and the European Champion's League - in the previous season. Guardiola had plenty of success in Germany's domestic competitions but did not win what he was employed to win - the European Champion's League.
In 2016 Guardiola was hired by Manchester City to do what he failed to achieve at Bayern Munich, and despite success in England's domestic competitions, three efforts to lift the European Champions League trophy have all ended in failure.
Pochettino or Guardiola?
Guardiola has not taken his teams to the next level, mainly because he has not managed clubs that are in any sense struggling. In fairness to him, he has not had a real opportunity to establish himself as a great manager. At the time he took charge of undoubtedly the best squad of football talent in the Premier League at Manchester City in 2016, some pundits suggested that he should have taken the job at struggling Manchester United and established his greatness by taking that club out of the slump that it had fallen into in the post-Ferguson era.
On the other hand, Pochettino has consistently taken charge of teams in need of improvement and he has, by any measure, succeeded in achieving that goal.
And, if reports as of today are correct, he is likely to further enhance his standing as a great manager, by doing what Guardiola did not do in 2016. All that needs to happen for that to occur is for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to vacate his chair at Old Trafford.
Footnotes
[1] On this score, there can be little doubt that the greatest managerial achievement in recent times was Claudio Ranieri's season at Leicester City when he took over of team that had miraculously escaped relegation from the Premier League during the 2014-2015 season, to winning the Premier league in the following season.
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