If timing is everything then the new series of House of Cards has come at just the right time for Mauricio Pochettino.
Tottenham ’s Champions League hopes are on a knife edge going into Tuesday’s crunch Group B game against PSV Eindhoven at Wembley, with the Spurs manager desperately trying to stop his own pack being blown over.
With skipper Hugo Lloris suspended, Moussa Dembele, Eric Dier, Jan Vertonghen, Victor Wanyama and Danny Rose all injured, and fans unhappy over the continuing new stadium delays, these are tough times for the man calling the shots at Spurs.
Only last week, Pochettino admitted he had never felt so low during his four-and-a-half years in charge.
For now though, he is remaining optimistic and wants to take inspiration from his favourite TV show.
“How I feel?” he smiled. “Yes, yes, it’s a weird season but I look so happy now because I start again the new season of House of Cards and yesterday I watched three episodes.
“I learn a lot from this series. I recommend it. Life is similar, eh? I learn a lot from this series. I think it represents very well sometimes how we are. Sometimes football is so political and it’s going in this direction.”
Asked which character he would be in the smash-hit drama about a fictitious US Preseident starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, Pochettino reined himself in.
“I don’t know. It’s dangerous to say this or that one. It’s fiction but you can translate it in many businesses – things that happen,” he said.
The equation for him and his own president, Daniel Levy, is simple: Beat PSV or prepare for a return to the Europa League — at best! — midway through a season that promised so much.
A chastening home defeat to Barcelona, sandwiched between a loss away to Inter Milan and a draw against PSV in Holland, has left Spurs with no room for manoeuvre if they want European football in their new stadium this season.
Pochettino added: “I don’t have too many players to select. Now we are only 18 or 19. There’s a small chance to get through to the next stage – that’s the reality. I think it doesn’t affect us. We know very well that we need to win this.”
Dele Alli is back after missing the weekend’s 3-2 win at Wolves as a precaution. But Dembele has had a scan after injuring an ankle at Molineux.
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Erik Lamela is set to start on the bench despite hitting his sixth goal of the season at Wolves on Saturday. Pochettino has challenged his fellow Argentine to maintain his consistency for the rest of the season.
He said: “He’s more mature now. It’s been tough for him from the day that he arrived here.
“This is his sixth season. It was tough for him at the beginning but now, after I think 12 games, he has scored eight goals [taking in the final game of last season at Leicester].
“Everything now is going well. I hope it continues and he is consistent during the whole season and we can talk at the end of the season that Lamela made a fantastic season.”
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