Were Tottenham right to sack Mauricio Pochettino?

You're a Tottenham fan who has turned your phone off at 7pm on Tuesday night. You then turn your phone on 12 hours later to see Spurs have sacked Mauricio Pochettino and appointed Jose Mourinho as his successor in north London. No, this is not a dream, and it's news to shake you out of your early morning slumber. Mourinho is now Tottenham head coach. 

To some, this is perhaps the equivalent of dismissing Captain (south) America and appointing Thanos in his stead. You can almost hear the latter's "I am inevitable" phrase in Mourinho's voice. Spurs fans are naturally upset at Pochettino's exit given how the club have performed following his 2014 appointment and run to the Champions League final. 

If anything, Pochettino is the victim of his own success. He has worked wonders for Spurs with one hand half tied behind his back and the exceptionally high standards left fans and the club's hierarchy wanting more. Ultimately, as magic as he may be, getting Spurs out of this current funk was one trick he couldn't pull off. 

That said, Pochettino routinely spoke of a rebuild in north London, and it was one he brought to Daniel Levy's attention 18 months ago. Rather than strengthen, Spurs instead became the first side to not sign a player in the summer transfer window since the transfer window became compulsary in the 2002/03 season and the beginning of the end, in effect, began at that point. 

So did Pochettino deserve to be sacked by Spurs? Well, yes and no. The lack of investment in the summer of 2018, particularly on the back of an energy sapping World Cup, meant the players didn't feel pushed to remain competitive and the squad stagnated as a result, eventually limping into the Champions League largely in part due to the incompetance of Manchester United and Arsenal. Even the summer captures of Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso and Ryan Sessegnon didn't mask the problems that had been bubbling to the surface for months. 

And given Spurs' previous performances under Pochettino, the Argentine deserved the time to turn the club's fortunes around and rebuild a broken team. That said, the league form in 2019 has been terrible. The run to the Champions League final masked what has been a huge downturn in domestic performances this calendar year. No team lost more competitive matches than Pochettino's side in 2019 (18) and Spurs have lost more points from winning positions (12) than any other Premier League team this season having sacrificed leads to Leicester, Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton and, most recently, Sheffield United. 

Looking at the stats from each season under Pochettino, and it's clear that the performance levels have dropped. 1.5 goals scored per game is their lowest since his debut campaign, while 1.4 goals conceded per game is also the joint highest. 12.5 shots per game and 14.8 shots conceded per game in 2019/20 are the lowest and highest, respectively, in a league season with Pochettino at the helm, while a WhoScored rating of 6.69 is far and away Spurs' worst since Pochettino rocked up in north London back in 2014. 

After breaking the club-record transfer to secure the services of highly rated Ndombele, and adding Lo Celso and Sessegnon to the ranks, the club clearly felt they should be performing better in the league than they are now. Indeed, only the three sides in the relegation zone have won fewer games than Spurs (3) this season, while 14 point from 12 games leaves the club in 14th, just six points above the drop zone. "Regrettably domestic results at the end of last season and beginning of this season have been extremely disappointing," Levy said in his statement announcing Pochettino's exit, so from a footballing perspective, you can't fault the Tottenham chairman.

And it leaves Mourinho with a tough ask to secure the top four finish Levy craves. No team with as few points as Spurs has ever gone on to record a top four finish in the Premier League, so victory at West Ham this weekend will be as good a place as any to start if they are to guarantee a place in next season's Champions League, unless, of course, he goes one better than Pochettino and delivers European glory. 

From a fans perspective, though, Pochettino's sacking is a bitter pill to swallow. He left without winning a trophy, but he is Levy's most successful managerial appointment and departs with a proud legacy. The Spurs supremo will hope he can go one better and his gamble in sacking the Argentine and bringing in Mourinho now pays off handsomely.