Mauricio Pochettino Reflects on World Cup and Future Ambitions
Mauricio Pochettino walks into the room like a man who has finally exhaled. Hugs, jokes, stories about the summer. Only his has involved a World Cup on home soil, a president who never leaves the stage, a political storm over Folarin Balogun – and a touchline outfit that somehow turned him into an unlikely style reference point.
He laughs easily, but the last few months have changed him.
“We are much better coaches now,” he says, and he means it.
A World Cup, a President and a Storm Called Balogun
Guiding USA to the last 16, where Belgium ended the host nation’s dream, sounds straightforward on paper. It was anything but.
Managing at a World Cup is one thing. Managing at a home World Cup with Donald Trump hovering in the background is another entirely. Pochettino chooses his words carefully when Trump’s name comes up, preferring to highlight the support and backing the president gave the team rather than the circus that followed.
The Balogun saga cut straight through that.
The forward’s suspension was suspended by FIFA on the eve of the Belgium game, after a swirl of “politics and manipulation”, as Pochettino put it at the time. He understood the anger, the noise, the accusations that the football had been overshadowed.
His own role, he insists, was simpler.
“If you pay attention to the noise, you become crazy,” he says. When FIFA’s letter arrived the day before the game confirming Balogun could play, the decision was “straightforward”.
The chaos around him only reinforced a lesson he already believed in: details decide everything. International football gives a coach a fraction of the time he enjoys at a club. Sessions are shorter, ideas harder to embed, habits more difficult to change. Pochettino’s conclusion is blunt.
“Everything needs to be perfect.”
He and long-term assistant Jesus Perez have come out of the tournament convinced they have grown. The World Cup has sharpened his hunger, not dulled it.
Fashion, Fame and Four More Years
Somehow, amid the tactical tweaks and political noise, his navy touchline ensemble became a talking point of its own. Pictures flew around social media. Then Wayne Rooney went out and bought the same look.
“I saw him. He looked good on him, like a top coach,” Pochettino laughs.
It was that kind of summer. Football, politics, fashion. USA knocked out in the last 16. The world moved on. The rumour mill started.
He was quickly linked with clubs across Europe. AC Milan were mentioned. Others too. It felt inevitable he would be back in club football before long.
Then came the twist: Pochettino signed a new four-year deal with USA. A commitment through to 2030. Six years away from the day-to-day grind of club management if he sees it out.
Is that it for the Premier League?
He doesn’t hesitate.
“I have the ambition,” he says. “My dream now is to be in the USA for four years, but after that, why not? We are still young, and I think coming back is always my goal; to win the Premier League, to be in the Premier League and to build a project with the possibility of winning.
“I love the football here. I think to have the chance again is one of my wishes and I hope that happens.”
Spurs, ‘One Day, Why Not?’ and the Jobs That Never Got Close
The idea of unfinished business in England takes him straight back to Tottenham. Eighteen months ago, he spoke openly about wanting to return one day. Spurs were struggling under Ange Postecoglou then; since that point Postecoglou has gone, Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor have come and gone, and the club flirted dangerously with relegation.
Did the call ever come to bring him back?
“Always I say, one day, why not?” he replies.
So was it realistic this time?
“People talk and maybe we receive some approach, but it never was close.” Not this time, at least.
What about those other clubs? AC Milan, for example.
“We were not open during the World Cup to talk with different clubs that were interested,” he explains.
Were there many? The answer comes with a shrug of someone used to the attention.
“Yes, always,” he says. “Yes, always have different, you know, options.”
Did any of them tempt him, even briefly?
“We never gave the opportunity to be close. We always closed the door before it got close.”
The World Cup, and the USA project, came first.
Balogun’s Future and a Premier League Wish
Balogun has been back in the headlines since the tournament, this time for club reasons. His proposed move from Monaco to Everton collapsed late on Deadline Day. Pochettino has deliberately kept his distance.
He hasn’t called him. Not yet.
He knows the deal falling apart would have hurt and wants to give the striker space. He would have liked to see Balogun in the Premier League. Instead, the forward remains at Monaco, and Pochettino simply hopes he can settle and “get himself into a good place”.
The coach’s admiration for English football, though, is undimmed. When he talks about coming back, it’s not just to be part of the league. It’s to fight for it.
Spurs’ Spending, Chelsea’s Shift and Arsenal’s New Standard
From there, the conversation loops back to Tottenham’s present. It rarely stays quiet at Spurs for long.
“They are investing like other clubs,” Pochettino notes. The strategy has changed. After a couple of turbulent seasons, Spurs have started spending big on players already proven in the Premier League.
It’s a far cry from his own era, when he took the club to the brink of glory in the league and in Europe while spending comparatively little. How would he have handled a £300m budget?
He grins and feigns innocence. He pretends he can’t quite grasp what £300m even looks like.
Will this new approach work?
“You never know,” he says. “We need time to see if that works or not.
“Like in all the games, when you make a decision like a coach that can work well or not. I think it’s a different strategy and a different way to operate. I always wish the best for Tottenham because it’s in my heart.”
Across London, Chelsea have also changed course. The role Pochettino held two years ago has shifted from head coach to manager, and the transfer policy has been overhauled. Under Xabi Alonso, the club are targeting Premier League-ready players rather than long-term projects.
Pochettino avoids direct comparisons, but he recognises the intent.
“Buying players like this you can expect to fight, to be a contender for the Premier League,” he says.
Chelsea’s defeat to Arsenal has already checked some of the early optimism. Pochettino, though, urges patience with Alonso.
“Of course they are disappointed after the defeat against Arsenal, but I think we need to give time to Xabi’s first season after three games in the Premier League,” he says.
“I think we need to give time, and of course for Tottenham the same.”
Time, he believes, is still the most precious commodity in football. For coaches, for projects, for ideas to take root.
Right now, he sees Arsenal as the benchmark.
“Mikel [Arteta] is the best coach in the Premier League today,” Pochettino says. “Knowing what he needs to do, it’s going to be tough to beat them.”
He has thrown his lot in with USA until 2030. He has embraced the chaos of a home World Cup, the scrutiny of a president, the madness of politics colliding with sport. He insists he is a better coach for it.
The Premier League will have to wait. The question is simple: when he finally comes back, who will be ready for him?
