Barcelona (AFP)

Described as a "sheriff" eager to control everything and expected to take charge of PSG, Mauricio Pochettino has built a reputation as a low-cost coach-builder on the Tottenham bench (2014-2019), multiplying his exploits until 'to a Champions League final in 2019.

A man of charisma and character, the former Argentine defender (48), who wore the PSG jersey for two years as a player, turned the lead into gold when he became a coach at the head of the "Spurs", developing an attractive game while growing many young players.

This is perhaps the ideal profile to give new life to a PSG Champions League finalist in August in Lisbon but since caught up with its shortcomings and its too great dependence on its stars Neymar and Kylian Mbappé.

However, Pochettino does not have any trophies to his credit, a deficiency to be filled quickly with PSG.

The method of this son of farmers from Murphy, near Rosario (northern Argentina)?

Hard work and constant demand that earned him the nickname "sheriff" when he started as a coach at Espanyol Barcelona (2009-2012).

"Pochettino's personality injects adrenaline into all players," said Joan Collet, ex-president of Espanyol, to AFP.

In 2009, the former central defender of "Pericos" (1994-2001 then 2004-2006) and of PSG (2001-2003) is still in the process of making his ranges as assistant coach of the Espanyol women's team when 'he is called to the bedside of the first team, then La Liga red lantern.

- Poor taste for detail -

First miracle: despite his inexperience, the former Argentina international (20 caps) remobilizes the players, who are mostly former teammates, earns 25 points out of 30 possible during the last ten days and saves the club, where he will remain four years on the bench.

"His secret was to raise our morale," said Javi Chica, an Espanyol player at the time.

"As a good Argentinian, he knows how to motivate others, to strike a chord."

The "Pocket" style is already at work: an overall vision for the club and a sick taste for detail, perhaps inherited from his mentor Marcelo Bielsa, as when he closed the training center "perico "to be able to work out of sight.

To the point that his troops sometimes consider him "excessive" in his grip ... as when he passes a soap to a young player from Espanyol for wanting to eat ice cream.

In 2004, after a French experience in Paris and then in Bordeaux (2003-2004), Pochettino, solid defender and good raiser, agreed to drastically reduce his salary to return to Espanyol, then struggling.

Since then, the "Pericos" recognize him as one of their own.

And this father of two, a great wine lover, still stays very regularly in his house in Barcelona.

- Lemons in his office -

Thanked by Espanyol in 2012 without making the slightest wave, the coach bounced back in Southampton in 2013, where he kept the club in the Premier League and then guided the team to a nice eighth place the following season.

Here it is propelled in 2014 to Tottenham, to build there over time.

He lost in the final of the FA Cup in 2015, finished runner-up in 2017.

The Spurs are modeled in his image: past close to elimination in pools, quarterfinals and then C1 semi-finals in 2019, the team, over-motivated, overcomes all obstacles until the final.

It is this extra soul that he will have to bring to PSG, too often subscribed to European disillusions in recent years.

"To have led the club (Tottenham) in the final of the C1, it is a miracle. Nobody believed in us at the start of the season", had savored Pochettino in 2019, while he had not recorded any recruit on the two previous mercatos.

While almost every year qualifying the club for the Champions League, the Argentinian has hatched a great generation of young players, from Harry Kane to Dele Alli.

Blessed bread for PSG, whose rich breeding ground from Parisian training often struggles to make its way to the first team against the stars recruited at a gold price.

All with a game "à la Bielsa", made of intense pressing and permanent movement, and a displayed belief in "universal energy", a kind of sixth sense that pushes him to place lemons in his office to "absorb bad energy ".

A question remains, however: will Pochettino the builder manage to obtain such a return immediately, in a club where the Qatari leaders are little known for their patience?

© 2020 AFP