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‘Pathetic’ Pochettino has Mailbox feeling sorry for Mike Dean

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To the point
Grow up…. you lost fair and square !

Nothing more to say.
Chris, Croydon

Poor Mike Dean
For the first time ever I felt a bit of sympathy for Mike Dean seeing the end of the Spurs game. If Poch really was going mental over that incorrect corner then I think that’s a bit excessive. At full speed it’s not that clear who got the last touch and the linesman made the call as he saw it, not Mike Dean.

I’d also argue that Vertonghen banging on the ground and Poch and his assistant remonstrating with the 4th official probably took the team’s focus off the actual corner they then had to defend.

Decisions do go against all teams unfairly sometimes but I think you just have to lump it and get on with it and stay in the moment rather than lamenting. I’ve never seen a ref give a corner then change his mind because everyone complained extra loud.
Minty, LFC

Sorry, but that’s pathetic from Pochettino. If he was complaining about the corner then I wonder what his thoughts were on Danny Rose stealing yards on the throw-in? Surely one mistake cancelled the other out?

He was probably just angry because his subs cost Tottenham that game. Llorente on for Winks looks like an attacking sub but it meant they couldn’t control the midfield so found themselves overrun. And Lucas Moura should have been on much earlier.

At least he admitted he made a mistake after the game. Be good to hear him say he would plenty during it.
Stevo

Weirdos
So Spurs lost Harry Kane to injury, everyone expects them to go on a bad run of form without him, yet they perform quite well and don’t lose a single game in that time.

He comes back into the team, scores on his return and yet Spurs lose…..and here’s me thinking that Chelsea were frustrating.
Mikey, CFC (Cup Final day, let’s try not to be totally humiliated again)

Break broke Spurs
No arguments with Spurs as your early loser. Very disappointing performance. It did lead me to think, the break we’ve had since the Dortmund game has done us more harm than good.

Sure we were looking a bit tired at the end of games, but we were winning still. Much is made of momentum, and it really felt today like the break had killed ours. Maybe if we hadn’t thrown away the FA Cup game, we’d have been able to keep the pace up, and maybe today wouldn’t have looked like such a slog. I agreed with Poch regarding them being the lesser priorities, but maybe just playing the games is what is important.

Not sure I buy the narrative we’re out of a title race we were on the fringes of anyway. If Liverpool or Man City go on a 12 game winning run from here (which would include both beating Spurs, albeit at home) then they absolutely deserve the League and Spurs wouldn’t have won it regardless of this result. Otherwise there will be other opportunities and there is still a long way to go. We remain what we always were, massive outsiders.
Luke (Really thought Poch could be Mike Dean’s 100th at the end there!) Spurs

A false sense of entitlement
Having just watched Stoke City fail to shut out another game against an out of form Villa, I suddenly realised how much we have in common with Everton. Both clubs feature a collection of underperforming, overpaid players assembled by a revolving door of managerial appointments. Both have young, new managers trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, desperately trying to engineer a new system out if ill-fitting parts. Neither side can score and both play uninspiring football. Both find themselves, against expectations in the bottom half of the table. Neither will be relegated (I think) but neither will view the season with optimism or look back on it as anything other than a massive let down.

Then you look at the teams around them and realise they are both exactly where they should be. Neither side deserves better. So you wonder where the sense of entitlement comes from. Are Everton better than Watford, Bournemouth or Leicester? No. And they sure as sh*t aren’t as good as Wolves (but they came up from the Championship and should go back down blah blah boo hoo).

Are Stoke better than Preston, Sheffield Wednesday or Blackburn? Another no there. And they sure as sh*t aren’t as good as West Brom (but they came down with us and should only be as successful as us and Allen/Butland etc are premier league class blah blah boo hoo). More to the point, did they ever promise to be pre-season, other than in our minds? I think you have to say a big fat no to that too.

Both teams in their current guise can only ever be tallest dwarfs. The best of a bad lot. So I reckon both sets of fans need to shut up about where they think they should be and go with what they’ve got. Uninspiring? God, yes. But this is football, isn’t it? Like family, we realise that, massive pains in the arse they are, they are all we’ve got. So keep turning up for the awful get togethers and congratulate yourselves on your loyalty. It’s character building and it’s made us what we are. Right now, we’d feel and look like the silly, underdressed tw*ts we are at the glamorous family party down the road after sneaking through the broken bog window out back.

Keep it real, Toffees and Potters fans. Look at Preston. Their ambition was to just finish above Blackburn. Looks like their season will be a success. Likewise Bournemouth. Their remit was to keep Eddie Howe, play lovely football and be everyone’s second favourite team. Job done.
Tim SCFC (Stoke for Champions League football 2029 under veteran managerial god who fancies a Rafa Benitez-like challenge, Mauricio Pottechino). 

A Bielsa correction
Lovely article by Johnny Nic about Marcelo Bielsa. I also admire the man, even though he manages “dirty” Le*ds.

Bielsa did not, as Johnny claims, “put together a dossier detailing every formation that every team used in every single game in the league during the season just gone” to get a UK work permit. Because preparing such a report isn’t evidence of any managerial talent, because it’s something anyone with an Internet connection and lots of free time can do.

I think Johnny has mixed up two stories. As recounted in this Guardian article, before he was hired, Leeds’ managing director and director of football flew to Buenos Aires to meet Bielsa. They asked him something like “How well does a respected, international manager such yourself know a lowly division such as the Championship?” Bielsa whipped out the aforementioned report and showed them that, in fact, he knew the Championship quite well. (Side note: if you ever answer an interview question like this, the next question usually is “When can you start?”).

Bielsa then had to apply for an “exceptional talent” UK work permit because he hadn’t worked enough in the past few years. This sounds similar to footballers needing either a certain number of international caps in the past 2 years, or evidence of exceptional talent (usually for younger players without international call-ups). I understand that Bielsa is f*cking brilliant, and the government isn’t terribly popular at the moment, but I can’t fault the authorities for applying the rules (apparently) evenly here.

In support of Bielsa’s work permit application, his disciple Mauricio Pochettino wrote a letter (which I found oddly heartwarming). Bielsa also had to appear before the FA’s expert panelists, Kenny Jackett and Stuart Ripley.
Jayraj (I am not a lawyer), MUFC