BBC Sport pundit Garth Crooks has ripped into Mauricio Pochettino for claiming winning cups only polishing the egos of the players.
The former Tottenham striker claimed the Argentine is wide of the mark and “fails to understand” the value of history-defining events that fans remember forever.
“Winning trophies in football has never been easy,” Crooks told the BBC Sport website. “Ask those professionals who have gone an entire career having never won any. So you can imagine my dismay when Pochettino suggested that winning cups, as opposed to league titles, is good merely for polishing one’s ego.
“A little rich, especially from someone who has never won one, don’t you think? It’s rather like offering your friend one of your favourite sweets only to be told he doesn’t like them but has never tried one.
“I have never won a league title but I have won three cups. Does it inflate my ego? Of course it does but that wasn’t the purpose. The determining factor was winning, which defines a team and in some cases even immortalises them.
“What Spurs boss Pochettino fails to understand is that winning trophies is not just about players or managers but the club and, most important of all, the fans. Of course he hasn’t won one so he wouldn’t know any of this but I have – and did so with the fans who now chant his name every week. And its magical.”
OPINION
Spot on, Garth. Pochettino’s instant reaction to Spurs’ double cup heartache was to question the value of winning trophies. Some nodded sagely along, claiming the money-obsessed modern game is all about top-four finishes and staying on board the Champions League qualification gravy train every year. While that is indeed essential to an elite club’s development and growth, it is the trophies that define a team and provide the memories that last forever. Pochettino has got his priorities wrong at Spurs, leaving out key players for vital cup matches, and then bringing them back in for the league fixtures. He needs to re-assess what is most valuable to his club and, more importantly, the supporters who idolise him. The Argentine has transformed the fortunes of Tottenham over the last five years, but his reign will be remembered more fondly if he decorates it with a trophy or two. That, as Crooks points out, is unarguable.