Mauricio Pochettino needs to show loyalty to Tottenham

Tottenham have done a lot for Mauricio Pochettino

A lot has been written this week about what Tottenham must do to keep hold of Mauricio Pochettino. While I agree keeping him at Spurs is an absolute necessity for the club, the conversation is a bit misguided. There’s a significant part of me that wants to see Pochettino show loyalty to a club that’s already done so much for him and his career.

I realize that’s a backwards notion to many of you, but I’d ask that you consider it carefully. When Tottenham hired Pochettino away from Southampton he was an interesting, but unproven manager. His lack of willingness to speak English added to his mystique and no one was really sure he could hack it at a bigger club.

Fortunately, Daniel Levy saw past the doubters and made the brave choice to appoint Pochettino. You can be sure he and his entire staff got a significant raise over what they were making at Southampton. The increased compensation and exposure Pochettino has received at Tottenham are certainly things he owes the club.

I’m not saying Pochettino hasn’t done his part. I’m over the moon with how he’s elevated the club since his arrival. It’s unfortunate that we haven’t had the chance to celebrate silverware with Pochettino just yet, but he’s made the club a legitimate Premier League title contender. Another point in his favour is that he’s done so without spending massively on transfers like some of his English peers.

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Even so, to say that Tottenham haven’t spent any money to back the manager is unfair. While the club’s transfer spend is relatively flat, their investment in facilities certainly is not. The club continue to provide the squad and their managerial team with the top training facilities in the Premier League. That’s certainly worth quite a bit to Pochettino.

There’s also the small matter of the £1 billion stadium the team will move into next season. No one likes the fact that construction debt may hold the club back in the transfer market for a few seasons. You still can’t act like Levy and company aren’t spending that money to back Pochettino. Surely the prospect of playing in a stadium that is expected to be amongst the best in Europe will be attractive to potential players. It isn’t a direct spend on transfers, but it does change Pochettino’s ability to attract big stars to Tottenham.

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If Pochettino wants to move on to manage a bigger squad, as Emmanuel Adebayor apparently predicts, Tottenham will be universally criticized for failing to back their manager. There will certainly be some truth to that line of thinking, but it won’t be entirely fair. Pochettino also deserves to show the club some loyalty for everything they’ve invested in him. The relationship between club and manager should always be a two-way street.