Pochettino making Jose look bad
The spotlight is on Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho to deliver a positive response to a week of negative publicity when faced with an opposite number who has adopted a very different attitude to similar off-field frustrations tomorrow morning (Singapore time).
While Mourinho appears at odds with the club's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and key players like Paul Pogba, Mauricio Pochettino has kept Tottenham on track to travel north with a 100 per cent record in the English Premier League.
The Argentinian is likely to have little sympathy for Mourinho's complaints about not being backed enough by Woodward in the transfer market after spending over £70 million (S$122.7m) in the off season on Brazilian international Fred and teenage fullback Diogo Dalot.
Tottenham became the first Premier League side since the introduction of the summer transfer window to fail to sign a single player despite Pochettino delivering a third season of Champions League football on a significantly smaller budget than his competitors.
Pochettino has also had to cope with delays to the club's new 62,000-capacity stadium that will see Spurs play at least their first four games of the season at Wembley.
REWARDED
Yet, unlike Mourinho's consistent outbursts against his superiors and expensively assembled squad, Pochettino's pleas for a united front have been rewarded in victories over Newcastle United and Fulham.
How Woodward may now regret not testing Tottenham's resolve by trying to poach him instead of hiring the combustible former Chelsea boss two years ago.
Speculation of a move to Manchester was in the pipeline for Pochettino before Mourinho's arrival was heightened when former United boss Alex Ferguson met with the Spurs manager for lunch in March 2016.
Pochettino described the meeting as a "dream come true", but now seems to have tied himself to the project of converting the abundant talent in Spurs' young squad into trophies at the new White Hart Lane after penning a five-year contract extension in May.
But for all the progress made by Spurs under Pochettino, success at Old Trafford has eluded them. They have lost all of their last four visits without even scoring a goal. - AFP
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