London: Manuel Pellegrini knows Jose Mourinho is likely to be an upgrade on Mauricio Pochettino when it comes to bringing trophies to Tottenham Hotspur.
But the West Ham United manager also believes that any future Spurs success might still have the fans harking back fondly for the Pochettino era, which ended without silverware when he was sacked on Tuesday.
Mourinho’s first game as Tottenham manager, at the London Stadium on Saturday, is ostensibly between two teams in relegation form whose fan bases dislike each other intensely.
“Jose Mourinho, in every league where he works, in Italy, in Spain, here in England, he is a manager that has a lot of titles behind him so he will be a manager who is good for football. After that, you must think of what kind of football you want.
“Of course, the philosophy of Pochettino is not the same as that of Mourinho, but he is just in charge of the team in two days so I don’t think he will try to change all properly.”
“A lot of times teams that are successful in one season, in the next, they are not, they don’t play in the same way,” he said. “You saw what happened with Chelsea when Mourinho was manager. They won the title then the next season he was sacked. After that, Leicester, exactly the same, Ranieri was sacked. You must be inside the club to know what happened.”
Was Pellegrini willing to share a post-match drink with the Special One? “Maybe,” was the answer. Somebody is destined for sour grapes though, whatever the score.
