Mauricio due on any time now, exclusive interview on first impressions, why he came here, the Everton game and a look back at Espanyol....
Summary: "Mauricio do you want to talk in English?" MP: "I do understand English, but I still need to work on my vocabulary and confidence. Okay, lets talk in Spanish." (said this in English btw) - Haven't had a lot of time to settle yet - Very grateful for the attitude of players and staff, they are a family here at Southampton - Thank you for the welcome of the fans - Been working round the clock for 3 days - I really liked what I saw, a very strong first half - Exactly what I am looking for in the future - Perhaps our hard work first half without reward caught up with us second half - Generally speaking, it was a good performance - At the moment me and Jesus share the technical area, he speaks good English - Sometimes football is more about gestures - What attracted me was the structure when I spoke to the club - I want to work with young players and Southampton have the youngest squad and have a great academy - I like to work with all the coaches in youth system - I will look at La Liga for acquisitions, but first I will look to the academy - Spain is a market I have a lot of knowledge of and it has a lot of rich talent - Our aim is to consolidate our position and finish as high as possible - We need to build more solid foundations in the future for the club Also, Jose Mourinho found out we were looking for a new manager a few weeks back and personally recommended Pochettino to Cortese via a 3rd person.
The interesting bit is although he would look for new players, he would look at the academy first....doesn't sound like a lot of new players in.
Said it was important to look at our own talent, but he will look at acquisitions. But that academy players can be like a new signing.
All good stuff. Threw me a bit that he named Jesus is his right hand man, but then I realised who he meant. Still, can't hurt having the saviour of mankind on board.
Thanks for that DTLW.....I didn't see the post in time so I missed the interview. Thanks for the rendition though......
Haha I did the same thing. Thought we can't be turning into a God Squad team, can we? "We'll do well because God guides the way"
Poch is a very religious man...could be very useful as manager of Southampton. Sometimes, we may need the help of the Almighty (other than Nicola).
Think he was probably just trying to say the right thing. Not that he was lying, but at this point it doesn't mean anything. Shaw is one of the brightest young stars in the Premier League, and he's already very good. So you wouldn't bring in a left back to replace him whether you cared about homegrown talent or not. Ward-Prowse is good cover at midfield where there are already a bunch of good players so you don't need to bring in a DM or central midfielder. Probably isn't anyone else ready to step up from the academy right now. It's not like Adkins was anti-youth. If there was a player who could help he'd already be playing. So Pochettino can do whatever he wants, and still say he looked to the Academy first.
Managed to watch it on a stream, good summary. Smacks a bit of George Weah phoning Graeme Souness and recommending a player doesn't it?
I think Adkins was actually quite conservative with bringing youngsters into the team for the first time. Ward-Prowse played in cup matches last season but never in the league, had a lot of time to get used to being around the first team before he was thrown in, and same with Shaw really. His progress into the team was expedited slightly by Fox's injury, and he's done well, but I think Adkins would have preferred not to have to put him in that early. There might be a few others, the likes of Chambers and Stephens, who could do a job if called upon.
Hopefully not that old ploy!! Apparently we had the feelers out and Mourinho brought Pochettino to our attention, said he will be a top manager and you won't go far wrong with him.
VIDEO OF INTERVIEW: http://www1.skysports.com/football/...a-to-achieve-ambitious-project-at-Southampton
Saw this on Twitter earlier, is it unreasonable that I've gone from being disappointed by the sacking of NA to excited by the appointment of MP so quickly?
We are just shallow. The fact is that it has happened and we now want to believe the best. Poch has a period of grace. Sky have just shown a bit of the interview with their Spanish corespondent and they mentioned the Mourinho link.
And surely he knows that to sound as if he'd firstly be looking away from England/our youth system for players, wouldn't be what supporters of an English club would want let alone our crop of British players.
Whenever the Jehovas Witness types come to my door, I just tell them I worship at St. Marys, and send them away.
