Mauricio Pochettino believes the bark of fans on social media is worse than the bite of the Chelsea supporters he meets in real life while out walking his dog.
Pochettino had some winning over to do when appointed Chelsea boss last year, with some fans struggling to look beyond his five-and-a-half year reign at Thursday’s opponents and the Blues' big enemies Tottenham. But head coach Pochettino says he is getting hailed more than hounded when bumping into fans with his Rhodesian Ridgeback Sansa.
He said: “When I walk every day with my dog in different places of London, I feel… I won’t say love but the appreciation from the fans. On social media, it can be, ‘Hey, you must do this, do that,’ but here, it is the opposite. When I am on the street, the people are really good. If you face me on the street you will become in love. Especially if I have my dog.
“I spend one hour, one hour and a half with my dog. Maybe it is because they are scared of my dog, because it is a big dog. They appreciate and give us credit for working in a project and process that is so difficult, because the people who understand football know what is going on here.
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“They appreciate our commitment, the way we behave and the way we believe and support all the decisions that were taken before we arrived. We are in the middle of this journey. All we want is to help and add our knowledge and experience to be more competitive and help the team win games.”
Pochettino was adored at Spurs, who he transformed into title contenders and led to a Champions League final, and that love was reciprocated. And ahead of his 400th game as a manager in England he admitted he is not yet feeling more of an affiliation with Chelsea than the north Londoners. “You cannot compare nearly six years with 10 months,” he said. “Hopefully, yes [there is more work to be done].”
Pochettino’s allegiances were not in any doubt eight years ago today when he was in charge of Spurs for the unforgettable Battle of The Bridge. After initially claiming he remembered the game well, Pochettino then joked that he was suffering from temporary memory loss when reminded about him running onto the pitch to break up some of the flashpoints between the two sets of players.
Mauricio Pochettino is still to be completely accepted by some Chelsea fans (GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)His intervention was needed as the game descended into chaos and Chelsea fought back from 2-0 down to earn a draw which ended Spurs’ 2016 title hopes. He admitted “sometimes we crossed the line” as Spurs collected a team record nine of the 12 bookings shown on the night.
Though he also views it as a night from which they learned how to control their emotions, showed how much they cared and competitive they were along with signalling their potential to challenge for the big trophies.
This season’s reverse fixture at Spurs in November was also an eventful affair. Spurs lead but ended up losing 4-1 after having Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie sent off, with Nicolas Jackson scoring a late hat-trick. Pochettino added: “So many things went for us and against Tottenham earlier this season. I hope the positive things will be on our side tomorrow and for us it is really important the three points.”
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