"It's difficult for a club like PSG because the goals are so high. Sometimes when you win the league it doesn't look like enough and of course it's not enough for us either. “, admitted recently “Poche”.

However, "this club, he loves it", said Luis Fernandez in January 2021 about the technician who, as a central defender, wore the PSG jersey "with dignity" between 2001 and 2003.

It only took a handful of months for coach Pochettino to squander the credit earned by player Mauricio.

The enormous pressure from the Qatari PSG, transformed since 2011 with hundreds of millions of euros, crushed the nostalgia generated by its name, which reminded supporters of the show of the Ronaldinho years (2001-2003).

In a club that wants to win everything, right away, the 50-year-old Argentinian has accumulated too many failures: Ligue 1 lost in May 2021 to Lille, Champions Trophy sold in August to Losc, Coupe de France abandoned in January 2022 from the 8th...

Mauricio Pochettino reacts during the L1 PSG Lens match in Paris on April 23, 2022 bERTRAND GUAY AFP / Archives

Abandoned "Style"

Only the Champions League could have saved the record of Pochettino, whose contract ran until 2023.

But he also failed to sublimate the team which remained in a final lost to Bayern Munich (1-0) in August 2020 with his predecessor Thomas Tuchel.

Pochettino stopped at the semi-final stage in 2021, dryly eliminated by Manchester City (2-1 and 2-0 defeats).

This year, the exit from the eighth against Real Madrid (1-0, 1-3) looks like a huge step backwards for PSG, despite the reinforcement of Lionel Messi.

Pochettino and his Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola on the touchline during the Champions League group stage match in Manchester, England on November 24, 2021 Oli SCARFF AFP/Archives

Admittedly, the "Pulga" (35) has not lived up to expectations since his arrival.

But the arrows were mostly pointed at Pochettino when it came to naming a culprit.

Rarely has his team shown a face in line with his ambitions.

Apart from a few collective flashes during the past season, carried by a concrete defense, and several exploits by Kylian Mbappé, PSG "only" won Ligue 1, for the tenth time, a flop for the one who promised to his arrival to "win in style".

Double talk

Pochettino, who has often asked for time to develop his ideas, has not been helped either by the numerous absences which have depleted his squad, such as Neymar's ankle injury which sidelined the Brazilian for two and a half months.

"The first part of the season, you didn't even have time to train. The coach, poor thing, he couldn't even do tactical training. Really, we train while playing", conceded Marco Verratti , mid-January.

Close to his players, the Argentinian only scratched them very exceptionally in public, such as the "unacceptable" defeat in Monaco (3-0), while the wounds of the Madrid rout were still bleeding, where he had spoken of "shame" .

Even after the 3-1 in Madrid, where his team dominated before collapsing in 17 minutes, the coach had defended his players and preferred to point out a refereeing error.

Yet that evening his goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was at fault, his captain Marquinhos played his worst game in nine years in Paris, Neymar was transparent as often and Messi was light years away from his seven-time Ballon d'Or status.

Mauricio Pochettino chats with striker Neymar during the Champions League game Leipzig vs PSG in Leipzig, Germany on November 3, 2021 Ronny HARTMANN AFP/Archives

But we have only too rarely found in Paris the electric game of his Tottenham, finalist of the C1 in 2019 (beaten 2-0 by Liverpool).

In addition, he leaves in France the image of a trainer who is happy to speak in a bad language at a press conference, hesitant in his decisions... And the time taken by the negotiations for his contractual break is not likely to restore his image, despite the many photos in the colors of PSG that the coach has been posting on Instagram in recent days, as a farewell message.

After 18 months, "Poche" rarely spoke French in public, unlike his predecessors, accentuating the distance with the environment.

After Unai Emery and Thomas Tuchel, here is a third coach landed before having done three years.

"Poche" did not meet expectations, but Paris also uses its coaches.

© 2022 AFP